Kevin McCarthy’s Revenge Campaign Thwarted by Nancy Mace Victory

(TargetDailyNews.com) – After spending millions on what’s being called his “revenge tour” against South Carolina Republican Rep. Nancy Mace, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy may be asking himself if it was all worth it. Commentators certainly are.

McCarthy has been pumping money into campaigns to unseat Republicans who voted to eject him from the speakership last year. He was replaced eventually by Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, who voted with other Republicans to eject McCarthy, was one of his main targets.

But Mace handily won the Congressional primary for her state on Tuesday, June 11th, putting paid to McCarthy’s hopes.

Naturally, Republicans are not unified in their views on this kind of politicking. Some are calling it unproductive infighting, and they’d rather see issues debated instead of personalities. For example, California’s Rep. Mike Garcia called McCarthy’s campaign “emotion-based and therapy-based” instead of being rooted in facts. Spending money “on a losing cause” is “never favorable,” Garcia said.

Another California Congressional Republican, John Duarte, sees it down the middle. While he said “it’d be better if [this campaign] wasn’t going on,” he also said the “nonsense” from the faction that ousted McCarthy should not have happened either. He continued, “There’s gotta be repercussions” for the behavior of the ousters.

Most observers seem to believe that McCarthy is not only trying to enact revenge on his detractors. They think he’s genuinely trying to seat candidates who will do a better job carrying out party initiatives and goals. But they also think it’s a losing move to spend time and money as a Republican campaigning against other party members instead of against Democrats and more radical progressives.

Rep. Mike Waltz of Florida said he stays away from primaries as a rule because it does no good to get involved with personal disputes that turn into a “circular firing squad.”

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