After six votes in two days, House Republicans still do not have a consensus candidate for speaker, and 20 GOP holdouts remain opposed to Rep.-elect Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., for the job. One member of the group, Dan Bishop of North Carolina, went so far as to say he's "out" if lawmakers don't see institutional change in the House – which they do not trust McCarthy to deliver.
"We’re going to either see improvement up here the same way we made remarkable improvements in North Carolina in the state legislature, or I’m out," Bishop told Roll Call in an interview published early Thursday morning. He said that over McCarthy's 14-year tenure in Republican leadership, the would-be speaker has said the same things over and over again about threats facing the country and "every one of them has gotten worse, not better."
He later said it was not a threat to resign if McCarthy ultimately wins the speakership. "I will serve my term with all the force and vigor in me," he tweeted.
He also described himself as "older than the average bear," vowing he was "not going to stay up here for decades." Bishop told Roll Call that McCarthy acted in an "unseemly" way at a conference meeting earlier this week, nearly leading him to take a "never Kevin" position.
