Kevin McCarthy announces bid to replace John Boehner as U.S. Speaker

A chaotic scramble is on to fill the top Republican jobs in the U.S. House of Representatives after John Boehner's surprise resignation as its leader or speaker. Now the same conservatives who pushed him out are manoeuvring to yank the next leadership team to the right.

The frenzied action under the Capitol Dome will help determine how Congress contends with upcoming battles on keeping the government running and avoiding a federal default and whether Republicans can take back the White House next year.

Boehner's announcement he was leaving one of the most powerful jobs in Washington he is second in line to succeed the president shocked nearly everyone, opening a rare chance for ambitious lawmakers to climb the congressional ladder and for competing factions to exert new sway as an anti-establishment fever sweeps Republican politics.

• U.S. Speaker John Boehner to resign in October

The front-runner for the speaker's job, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, made his candidacy official Monday in a letter to fellow Republican lawmakers in which he pledged to fight for conservative principles and listen to all members something Boehner was accused of failing to do.

"If elected speaker, I promise you that we will have the courage to lead the fight for our conservative principles and make our case to the American people," McCarthy wrote. "But we will also have the wisdom to listen to our constituents and each other so that we always move forward together."

Majority leader race would also open

McCarthy, a Californian in his fifth two-year term, has been endorsed by Boehner. But he faces an opponent in Rep. Daniel Webster, a former speaker of the House in the state of Florida who unsuccessfully challenged Boehner at the beginning of this year and has drawn some conservative support.

"I would like to have a principle-based member-driven Congress," Webster said in an interview.

And McCarthy's likely ascent leaves the race for majority leader wide open. It's quickly turned into a rough-and-tumble contest with the No. 3 House Republican, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, jockeying aggressively against the Budget Committee chairman, Tom Price of Georgia and more candidates potentially waiting in the wings.

The No. 4 House Republican, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington state, opted out of the contest late Monday after spending the day looking for support.

The others are jockeying to lock down support as the Capitol swirls in chatter about endorsements.

The House's tea partiers, some three dozen strong, aren't fielding a candidate. But they want to see leaders who will take the fight to President Barack Obama and the Democrats, not compromise with them as the realities of divided government led Boehner to do. Some of them question whether McCarthy, who's seen more as a political operator than an ideologue, would deliver that new approach.

Boehner's decision to step down rather than face a nearly unprecedented floor vote to depose him averted immediate crisis, as the Senate was to vote Monday on legislation to keep the government running, and the House was scheduled to follow suit before a Thursday deadline. Despite conservatives' demands, the bill will not cut off money for women's health care provider Planned Parenthood in the wake of videos focused on the group's practice of providing fetal tissues for research.

But the bill merely extends the government funding deadline until Dec. 11, when another shutdown showdown will loom as conservatives make new demands on Boehner's successor and on Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell