Kevin McCarthy’s leadership of Republicans in the House of Representatives is on the brink of collapse with a vote Tuesday to remove him as speaker.

The revolt against McCarthy is led by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and a handful of conservative Republicans who have long complained that the speaker works too often with Democrats. If McCarthy is impeached, the House of Representatives, which has been in disarray for much of the year, could descend further into chaos, with a small group of Republican hardliners demanding further concessions to elect a new Republican speaker. And without the Bakersfield Republican as chairman, California, which lost its senior senator last week, could see its power in Congress diminish even further.

Gaetz late Monday night, after months of threats, filed a motion to impeach McCarthy, taking advantage of chamber rules that allow any lawmaker to force a snap vote to impeach the speaker. The House of Representatives will vote on Gaetz’s motion on Tuesday afternoon.

If all Democrats vote against McCarthy, Gaetz would need just four Republicans to oust the chairman. Before the vote, McCarthy said he would not make a deal with Democrats to save his job. The Democrats indicated that they would not save McCarthy from his right-wing enemies.

We’re ready to find bipartisan common ground, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, late Tuesday. Our extreme colleagues have not shown the willingness to do the same. They must find a way to end the Republican Civil War in the House of Representatives.

As of Tuesday afternoon, it appeared Gaetz had enough votes to unseat McCarthy. At least four Republican lawmakers Andy Biggs and Eli Crane of Arizona, Tim Burchett of Tennessee and Bob Good of Virginia had indicated they would not save the speaker.

It would be the first time in US history that this mechanism has been used to successfully remove a sitting Speaker of the House of Representatives. Gaetz has not yet proposed a name to replace McCarthy. McCarthy has likely already chosen an acting speaker to serve in his place temporarily if he is removed, but the person’s identity has not yet been revealed.

McCarthy is under pressure from conservatives in his party who are irritated by his willingness to break bread with Democrats. On Saturday, the speaker relied on Democratic votes to prevent a government shutdown; Earlier this year, he worked with Democrats to suspend the country’s debt ceiling so the United States could pay its bills.

Gaetz has tried to portray these actions as a betrayal of the Republican Party and evidence that McCarthy is unfit to lead the party. Gaetz also claimed that McCarthy had made a “secret deal” to help Biden provide funding to help Ukraine in its war against Russia. (McCarthy said this is not true.)

The confrontation makes McCarthy one of the weakest speakers in recent history.

McCarthy’s leadership has been repeatedly questioned

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right-wing members in his caucus, who are taking advantage of the Republican party’s narrow majority and withholding their votes to force the speaker to bend to their will. In exchange for their votes in January, McCarthy restored the rules that made it easy for any member of the House of Representatives to overthrow him, the same rules that are now causing him so much trouble.

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the latest blow to the power and reach of California’s congressional delegation, following the departure of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi from leadership of the House of Representatives and the recent death of longtime Senator Dianne Feinstein. If McCarthy is defeated, Democratic Reps. Pete Aguilar of Redlands and Ted Lieu of Torrance will be the only Californians left leading in both chambers of Congress.

But McCarthy’s politics are so far removed from the average California voter that Democrats aren’t concerned.

He didn’t really fight for California to begin with. And in fact, in many cases in the past, he has done things that were deeply hostile to California’s interests, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), who kicked McCarthy off the House Intelligence Committee earlier this year, told The Times. Ultimately, the country needs a speaker it can trust. We don’t trust him, their members don’t trust him, and you need a certain amount of trust to be a speaker.

Rep. Mark Takano (D-Riverside) told The Times that there is a high level of confidence in our leadership

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Democrats.

A handful of Democrats could defect, but it doesn’t appear they will be able to save McCarthy. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) told reporters he was considering everything and might vote present instead of voting with Democrats. I don’t know what I’m going to do, he told The Times.