The Labrador Effect: Tea Partier's Bid For Leader Deepens GOP Rift

SAHIL KAPUR – JUNE 13, 2014, 3:56 PM EDT

Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-ID) announced Friday he'll run for the position of House majority leader after other Republican hopefuls cleared the field for Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) ahead of the June 19 race.

McCarthy has the election all but locked up. GOP leadership's decision to hold the election just nine days after House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's stunning primary defeat makes it difficult for any member to corral enough support to leapfrog the man who's next in line for the job. But even if Labrador recognizes this he has little to lose and lots to gain, personally and ideologically, by mounting an underdog bid that fails. Labrador's run gives the House's "hell no" caucus -- tea party lawmakers who habitually vote against even routine bills -- an alternative to McCarthy.

The Idaho Republican, who was ushered into Congress on the 2010 tea party wave, is one of the most far-right members of the conference, frequently egging on leadership to be more confrontational with the president and to use their control of the House to force him to swallow a more conservative agenda. Speaker John Boehner's (R-OH) leadership team has come to believe that this approach is futile, if not self-defeating, beyond a point.

"President Obama and the Democrats have had their chance and they have failed," Labrador said in a statement announcing his bid for majority leader. "Republicans must be willing to take these challenges head on with new leadership, fresh ideas, and a different approach."

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