John,

I just left the House floor after voting to remove Kevin McCarthy as Speaker. It passed with 216 votes, including 8 Republicans. 

This is a historic moment. Never before has a Speaker been removed from office like this. Kevin McCarthy’s refusal to reign in the MAGA extremists in his own party ended up being his downfall. And I sure as heck wasn’t going to be the one who saved him.

Keep reading to hear my inside scoop on this crazy day, and if you can, please rush in a donation to help us take back the House and stop the chaos. Here’s a link. 

This morning I actually had very little intel on how this day was going to play out. But once I saw Matt Gaetz formally submit his motion to vacate (aka kick Kevin McCarthy out of his Speakership) I knew it was going to be chaos. I rushed over to an emergency meeting with the full democratic caucus to discuss how we wanted to handle it. As you can imagine, it was an intense meeting with lots of opinions that ended up lasting multiple hours. Ultimately, with Hakeem Jeffries’ leadership, we decided it wasn’t our place to save Kevin McCarthy from his own party.

Then it was time to vote. Every member’s name was called and we each had to stand up and state our vote. The mood was incredibly tense to say the least. I was surprised that right before me (because our names are so close in the alphabet), Marjorie Taylor Greene actually voted to save McCarthy. But then it was my turn. I solemnly stood, said “aye” and voted to remove Kevin McCarthy as Speaker. 

So where do we go from here? Over the next few days, Republicans need to figure out what the heck they are going to do and who will lead them moving forward. It’s literally never happened in history before. 

Then, once they coalesce around a new leader, there will be another vote for Speaker. It may take awhile (it took 15 times for McCarthy if you remember), and when that time comes I look forward to proudly casting my vote for Hakeem Jeffries. I certainly won’t be doing anything to help Republicans pick a new extremist to lead them.

The frustrating thing is that all this political chaos means the House of Representatives is about to grind to a halt. We can’t vote on anything meaningful until the Republicans get their clown car in order. Clearly the Republican party is in shambles. They have fully given into the extremists. The only way for our democracy to start working again is if Democrats win in November and take back the House. 

So if you’re tired of the chaos, I hope you’ll donate to my campaign so we can elect a Democratic majority and stop the MAGA chaos in Washington.