The congressman from the 22nd District is Kevin McCarthy, a Republican who won the seat in 2006. He is an up-and-coming leader in the Republican Party who rocketed to the No. 3 spot in the House GOP leadership by making himself indispensable to the party’s campaign planning operations. Read More

The congressman from the 22nd District is Kevin McCarthy, a Republican who won the seat in 2006. He is an up-and-coming leader in the Republican Party who rocketed to the No. 3 spot in the House GOP leadership by making himself indispensable to the party’s campaign planning operations.

McCarthy grew up in Bakersfield, where his blue-collar family has lived for generations and often voted Democratic. He moved in the other direction. At 19, he won $5,000 in the state lottery and invested it in a deli, which helped pay for business school at Cal State, Bakersfield. In college, he was elected chairman of the California Young Republicans and later headed the national Young Republicans organization. After he sold the deli, he got a job in the local office of U.S. Rep. Bill Thomas, who was then on his way to chairing the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. McCarthy eventually became Thomas’ district director and protégé. In 2000, McCarthy was elected to the Kern County Community College Board and in 2002, he, like Thomas before him, was elected to the Assembly. He was immediately chosen Republican leader (which is a little easier than it looks—because of California’s term limits, no assemblyman at the beginning of a session has served more than two terms). McCarthy worked with Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on the budget, workers' compensation issues and redistricting procedures.

When Thomas announced his retirement in March 2006, just four days before the filing deadline, McCarthy was the obvious candidate to succeed him. He faced only token opposition in the Republican primary. In November, he won 71%-29%. Looking ahead, he raised more than $1 million and traveled the country campaigning for other Republican congressional candidates. That attracted the attention of party leaders. After the election, he was chosen the freshman representative on the Republican Steering Committee, a leadership-run group that makes all-important committee assignments. He also chaired the Platform Committee at the 2008 Republican National Convention, winning praise for soliciting a wide spectrum of views and uniting conservatives and moderates. In 2009, he landed a leadership position when Minority Whip Eric Cantor appointed him chief deputy whip—an unusual amount of responsibility bestowed on a House member serving only his second term.

McCarthy also took on some legislative initiatives. He introduced a bill to streamline the voting process for military personnel stationed overseas, and he tried to amend a Democratic bill with a provision to prohibit unions from political spending of dues money derived from government-administered payroll deductions. On the Financial Services Committee, he sponsored an amendment to deny the Treasury Department the power to block access to U.S. markets for companies whose home countries are deemed to undermine the stability of financial markets.

His main focus has been on his first love, politics. His Republican colleague from the Central Valley, Devin Nunes, has said that McCarthy “lives and breathes politics.” McCarthy was the head of recruiting for the National Republican Congressional Committee in what turned out to be a highly successful election for the GOP in 2010. He traveled widely looking for candidates, identifying people capable of taking on Democrats used to winning against weak opposition. Ultimately, Republicans had candidates in 430 of the 435 congressional districts, the highest number ever. With Cantor and Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, he was named head of the party’s Young Guns program to spotlight otherwise obscure Republican challengers.

House Minority Leader John Boehner also assigned McCarthy and Rep. Peter Roskam of Illinois to draw up a document similar to the House Republicans’ 1994 Contract with America. They solicited ideas from the public on the Internet, and ultimately compiled the “Pledge to America” policy manifesto. Kept deliberately vague to deter Democratic attacks, it did not make as big an impression as the Contract, but it did tend to commit incoming and veteran Republicans to a single set of policies, such as extending the Bush-era tax cuts and repealing President Obama’s health care overhaul.

McCarthy was handsomely rewarded for his impressive efforts in improving the party’s electoral fortunes. When Cantor ascended to majority leader after Republicans won control of the House, McCarthy was chosen by his peers to replace Cantor as whip, the third-ranking position in the House after speaker and majority leader. Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas, another influential Republican, wanted the post, but was persuaded by Boehner to stay on for a second term as chairman of the NRCC, clearing the way for McCarthy to run unchallenged for whip. In his home district, McCarthy was re-elected without Democratic opposition in 2008 and 2010.