House GOP Leader: 'I Would Bet My Personal House' on GOP Retaking Majority in 2022
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California said Saturday that he believes Republicans will regain control of the House of Representatives in 2022.
McCarthy made his comment during a discussion at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida.
“We’re going to get the majority back, we’re five seats away! I would bet my house … my personal house, don’t tell my wife but I would bet it,” he said.
#CPAC: House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy says “I would bet my personal house” that the GOP wins back House majority in 2022. pic.twitter.com/HgCAbeLc8l
— Forbes (@Forbes) February 28, 2021
“Listen, do you want to retire Nancy Pelosi? Do you want to end the socialism in this country? Win the house — five seats. This is the smallest majority the Democrats have had in 100 years.”
During his appearance, McCarthy said the 2020 election was unique in GOP history.
“This is the first time since 1994 that no incumbent Republican lost. We beat 15 Democrats. And you know who the 15 Democrats lost to? Conservative women and conservative minorities, each and every one of them,” he said, according to the Independent.
McCarthy said former President Donald Trump was the catalyst for the party’s showing.
“Even when President Trump was sick with COVID … he would do these rallies over the phone for each district and he would have the candidate on and then he would talk and he would turn out the vote and that was a shock because all the polls said we would lose, but on Election Day the voters said ‘no, there’s a new path,'” McCarthy said.
Some believe McCarthy will be proven correct.
It’s so ascendant the republicans will have a majority in both houses by 2022
— Texo Marxist (@WestTexMarxist) February 25, 2021
#CPAC: House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy says “I would bet my personal house” that the GOP wins back House majority in 2022. pic.twitter.com/HgCAbeLc8l
— Forbes (@Forbes) February 28, 2021
Republicans lost control of the House in the 2018 midterm elections.
Democrats currently occupy 221 seats in the House against 211 Republicans.
Three vacancies exist — two on the Republican side caused by the deaths of Rep. Ron Wright of Texas and Rep.-elect Luke Letlow of Louisiana and one on the Democratic side after Rep. Cedric Richmond of Louisiana joined the Biden administration, according to the Daily Caller.
McCarthy has been upbeat before about the GOP taking control of the House in 2022.
In a post-election interview with The Washington Post, he was unapologetically proud of his party’s performance.
“We have never been stronger in the sense of what the future holds for us — we have never been in a stronger position,” he said.
“We won this by adding more people to the party. And we won this in an atmosphere where we were the one group that everyone guaranteed we would lose. And we’re the ones who won.
“We are the working American party and that’s what Trump was able to do. . . . The number of votes we got with Hispanics, the number of Black Americans we were able to get. We’re not winning the majority, but, man, did we improve. And it made the difference.”
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