‘He’s Bakersfield’: Kevin McCarthy’s constituents know him better than he knows himself

McCarthy began his rise to power working in his family’s frozen yogurt store in southern California. Photograph: Shutterstock

For two decades, Julie and Jared Vawter have been among the Republicans whose votes for Kevin McCarthy sent him from his conservative inland California hometown of Bakersfield to Sacramento and then Washington DC, where he rose through the GOP’s ranks in the House of Representatives and, this year, was elected speaker.

That climb came to an abrupt end last week, when a small group of rightwing Republicans revolted against McCarthy and, with the help of Democrats, made him the first speaker removed from the post in the chamber’s 234-year history.