WASHINGTON – Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., was selected from a succession list to serve as acting speaker.
McHenry began his tenure in Congress at the age of just 29. Since then, he has assumed a number of leadership positions and, in contrast to some of his House colleagues, is seen as a moderate Republican.
In an interview with Roll Call, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II, D-Mo., who joined Congress at the same time as McHenry, noted McHenry’s development as a lawmaker.
Who is Patrick McHenry?
McHenry, who represents North Carolina’s 10th congressional district, is now spending his tenth term in office. He is an ally of McCarthy’s and the head of the House Financial Services Committee, positions that aided him in earlier this year’s debt ceiling negotiations.
He was chosen in 2015 by House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., to serve as Chief Deputy Whip, assisting Scalise in forging consensus within the House Republican Conference on a conservative policy agenda.
According to Mark Harkins, a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Government Affair Institute, McHenry was a valuable asset to former Speaker McCarthy since he helped negotiate the agreement with rebels that made McCarthy Speaker in January.
How McHenry feels about subjects like abortion and aid to Ukraine-
The question of whether the U.S. government should provide more aid to Ukraine was one of the main topics surrounding the dispute over the government shutdown last month. McHenry has previously backed policies that would provide money for Ukraine’s military defence.
He supported the Ukraine Security Assistance and Oversight Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2023 as well as the Ukraine Democracy Defence Lend-Lease Act of 2022. He stated last year that the U.S. must, first and foremost, uphold a strong, long-term commitment to isolating Russia from international trade and financial markets.
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What is McHenry’s relationship with Trump?
Donald Trump, a previous president, claimed that McHenry had the best name in politics in 2018. Additionally, he has previously supported McHenry for Congress.
In a statement on the day of the attack on the Capitol, on January 6, McHenry stated that he had backed Trump in both the 2016 and 2020 elections.
President Trump has challenged China’s unfair trade practises, dismantled the core of Obamacare and Dodd-Frank, and supported our most cherished friend Israel. I voted more often with President Trump than any other member of North Carolina’s congressional delegation, supporting and working to pass his agenda at every turn. We have the best economy in the previous 50 years thanks to his leadership.
He also asserted that he could not break his oath of duty, and he was one of the legislators who voted to certify President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
What we don’t want in America is a two-tier system of justice, where a former president, a president’s son, or a president is punished differently, McHenry said when The Charlotte Observer asked him about Trump’s 2020 election indictment.
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