As Republicans try to move past the speakership drama that’s been immobilizing the House of Representatives, they are grappling with deep internal divisions, as well as rules that make it hard to govern in an age of narrow majorities.
They are also still grappling with what to do about one member in particular: Matt Gaetz.
Why We Wrote This
As House Republicans seek to elect a new speaker, still simmering in the background is anger about how the prior one was ousted. But will they kick out one of their peers over it?
The Florida congressman with the gelled hair and penchant for popping up on television was responsible for introducing the motion that ended up ousting Kevin McCarthy from the House speakership last week. Only seven other Republicans wound up joining him, but it was enough, with the votes of all 208 Democrats, to bring Mr. McCarthy down.
Even as House Republicans took an initial step toward selecting a McCarthy replacement on Wednesday, nominating Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise for House speaker, many GOP lawmakers remained incensed at Mr. Gaetz.
Yet the reality is, with just a four-seat majority, Republicans probably can’t afford to lose the telegenic Floridian’s vote – or the votes of any other hard-liners. As of press time, Mr. Scalise was struggling to secure the necessary votes to win the speakership, though Mr. Gaetz himself indicated he would support him or an alternative nominee, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio.
As Republicans try to move past the speakership drama that’s been immobilizing the House of Representatives, they are grappling with deep internal divisions, as well as rules that make it hard to govern in an age of narrow majorities.
They are also still grappling with what to do about one member in particular: Matt Gaetz.
The Florida congressman with the gelled hair and penchant for popping up on television was responsible for introducing the motion to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy last week. Only seven other Republicans wound up joining him, but it was enough, in concert with the votes of all 208 Democrats, to bring Mr. McCarthy down.
Why We Wrote This
As House Republicans seek to elect a new speaker, still simmering in the background is anger about how the prior one was ousted. But will they kick out one of their peers over it?
Mr. Gaetz claimed he was driven by broken promises that Mr. McCarthy had made on spending and other matters. The former speaker, for his part, accused Mr. Gaetz of being unhappy about a pending House ethics investigation.
Even as House Republicans took an initial step toward selecting a McCarthy replacement on Wednesday, nominating Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise for House speaker, many GOP lawmakers remained incensed at Mr. Gaetz.
“It makes us look weak and ineffective when we have a member of the conference who is trying to foster this chaos,” says New York Rep. Mike Lawler, one of several members who have voiced support for expelling Mr. Gaetz from the GOP conference. Such a move would require the backing of two-thirds of House Republicans, while expelling him from Congress would require two-thirds of the full House.
To Mr. Lawler and others, allowing Mr. Gaetz to go unpunished for what they view as an act of brazen disloyalty sets a dangerous precedent.
Yet the reality is, with just a four-seat majority, Republicans probably can’t afford to lose the telegenic Floridian’s vote – or the votes of any other hard-liners. As of press time, Mr. Scalise was still struggling to secure the necessary votes within his own party to win the speakership, though Mr. Gaetz himself indicated he would support him or an alternative nominee, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio.
Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Feb. 26, 2022, in Orlando, Florida.
In many ways, Mr. Gaetz represents a breed of controversy-courting lawmakers with whom both parties are increasingly having to contend. Drawing political power not from seniority or legislative chops but from celebrity status among the base, Mr. Gaetz has embraced the attacks launched against him by fellow Republicans, even incorporating them into his fundraising appeals. He says the speakership drama has only served to boost his popularity with GOP voters back home, a point echoed in interviews with party stalwarts in Florida’s 1st Congressional District.
“He probably damaged his political career among his colleagues in Washington, but his constituents here will vote for him again and again,” says Mary Howard, vice president of Walton Republican Women Federated in the district’s Walton County. “Gaetz didn’t cause the chaos of the Republican Party. The fiscal recklessness caused the chaos.”
Building a personal brand
First elected to Congress in 2016, the same year that former President Donald Trump won the White House, Mr. Gaetz rose to prominence as one of Mr. Trump’s most ardent supporters – and imitators.
Despite being the son of a former president of the Florida Senate and previously serving in the Florida House, Mr. Gaetz casts himself as a political outsider intent on disrupting Washington, even if that means upsetting – or firing – longtime leaders of his own party.
When asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” last Sunday if he was concerned about possibly losing his job over recent events, Mr. Gaetz responded confidently that he was elected with support from about 70% of his district’s voters and that “anyone trying to kick me out of Congress because they didn’t like me would have a bone to pick with them.”
Sharon Regan, a lawyer from Gulf Breeze, Florida, and chair of the Santa Rosa County GOP, says she was “proud as can be” watching Mr. Gaetz in Congress last week, and that Republicans would be “out of their minds” to remove him from their conference.
“He is their greatest, most courageous hero. He is the voice of the next generation,” she says. “Those people don’t get it.”
Ms. Regan suspects that most local Republican voters have a similarly positive view of their congressman, noting that Santa Rosa County is a “very red” area. Maybe 10%, she allows, would “call him a showboat.”
This is, in fact, a common charge from critics. Like Mr. Trump, Mr. Gaetz is a fixture on cable TV, with various past profiles chronicling his use of pancake makeup and obsessive tracking of his TV appearances.
“Mr. Gaetz is all about himself, focusing on cable-TV appearances, social-media posts, and urgent email appeals for campaign funds in one of the safest Republican districts,” wrote Karl Rove, deputy chief of staff for former President George W. Bush, in a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed titled “Give Matt Gaetz the Silent Treatment.”
To which Mr. Gaetz has all but responded: guilty as charged.
“Speaker of the House Paul Ryan once knocked me for going on TV too much, without considering that maybe his own failures as a leader stemmed from spending too much time in think tanks instead of in the green rooms where guests wait to appear on TV, and are thereby connected to the dinnertime of real Americans,” Mr. Gaetz writes in the first chapter of his 2020 book, “Firebrand.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz speaks before former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally at Waco Regional Airport in Texas, March 25, 2023.
“It’s impossible to get canceled if you’re on every channel,” he continues. “Why raise money to advertise on the news channels when I can make the news? And if you aren’t making news, you aren’t governing.”
Asked if she sees any similarities between Mr. Gaetz and Mr. Trump, Ms. Howard with Walton Republican Women Federated doesn’t hesitate.
“They both make for good TV,” she says. “That’s powerful – and that’s dangerous, because they can get their message out.”
Ambitions to be governor?
Lately, the hoopla on Capitol Hill has given new fuel to rumors that Mr. Gaetz plans to run for Florida governor in 2026.
The congressman himself has not confirmed this. But when asked about his gubernatorial ambitions on a Rumble livestream with Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle, he said he would “enjoy that job so much,” adding that he would “never leave it” like current Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with his presidential campaign.
“We are seeing trend lines in Florida that make it safer and safer in the Republican column, so if you are a candidate for future office, the reality is that voters are very concerned about spending,” says Matt Terrill, a former consultant for the Republican Party of Florida and former chief of staff to Sen. Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign. “Much of Gaetz’s rhetoric is something GOP voters will rally behind.”
With a 19-point Republican edge in Cook Political Report rankings, the 1st Congressional District is the reddest in Florida. Since being elected in 2016, Mr. Gaetz has won reelection every two years by more than 30 points. This, despite the fact that between 2020 and 2022, he was under federal investigation for sex trafficking, accused of paying an underage girl to travel with him across state lines.
Ultimately, the Justice Department declined to bring charges. But an investigation into the matter by the House Ethics Committee is ongoing, and some speculate that Mr. Gaetz’s recent rebellion may serve to refocus attention on that probe.
If Mr. Gaetz does run for governor in a few years, that controversy will likely come up again, along with other aspects of Mr. Gaetz’s personal life – like the fact that Mr. Gaetz has claimed to have a teenage Cuban “son” named Nestor.
Mr. Gaetz’s office did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Of course, not all the Republicans in his district have as rosy a view as Ms. Howard’s or Ms. Regan’s.
“He knows how to play to a crowd – what to say and how to say it, to convince people he is on their side,” says Cris Dosev, a veteran and real estate developer who ran against Mr. Gaetz in the Republican primary in 2016 and 2018. “And he’s very effective at it. I have to give him credit for that.”
Mr. Trump can get away with being a provocateur, says Mr. Dosev, who voted for the former president twice and plans to support him again in 2024, because he also gets things done, such as placing three conservative justices on the Supreme Court. By contrast, he sees Mr. Gaetz as more of an “actor.”
“There are people in our district who think he is a hero for doing this, for holding McCarthy to account. To me, he’s a chaos agent,” says Mr. Dosev. “He’s learned there is a 15-minute cycle in the news, and after that people move on. I think he’s hoping for that.”
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