Florida Republicans should have clout in the House. They have the numbers, the pedigree and the recently earned distinction as an epicenter of Republican politics.

But that hasn’t translated to much sway in the House, where the 20 Republican members remain at odds with each other over policy and politics but aim to emulate other big, unified delegations. Despite the numbers, they yield little sway. No members are in leadership. No Florida Republican holds a gavel. And while they often vote together on Florida issues, they’re otherwise a motley crew with conflicting alliances and approaches.

“You have a cross section,” former Speaker Kevin McCarthy said recently in an interview when asked about Florida Republicans. “You have [Rep. Matt] Gaetz, who belongs in jail, and you have serious members.”

Gaetz, in response, shot back by referencing McCarthy’s recent run-in with another Republican: “Tough words from a guy who sucker punches people in the back. The only assault I committed was against Kevin’s fragile ego.”

Going into 2024, Florida lawmakers make up about 10 percent of the entire GOP conference — a number most states could barely fathom reaching, much less from one party.

Florida’s role in national politics has expanded recently, with its elected officials grabbing national headlines by sparking intra-party clashes — from GOP Sen. Rick Scott feuding with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell to Gaetz’ move to oust McCarthy.

The Republicans who claim Florida as their home also bring stature to the Sunshine State: Former President Donald Trump resides at his Mar-a-Lago resort in South Florida during winter. Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was thrust into the national spotlight for defying pandemic-era restrictions, is a conservative darling, praised by Republicans who love his policies (if not his presidential campaign).

While Democrats from New York and California also boast big numbers, they’ve derived power in part through seniority and members in leadership, like former Speaker Nancy Pelosi or Speaker Hakeem Jeffries.

The lack of cohesion, due in part to differing political dynamics in the geographically large state, has allowed attention-seeking lawmakers like Gaetz to not only seize the spotlight but also act as an agent of chaos. Florida Republicans were livid at Gaetz for leading the effort to remove McCarthy — some called it “disgusting” and “inappropriate” — whether they agreed with him politically or not. But without a strong delegation willing to reign him in, Gaetz was free to act on his own — even if that included ousting the speaker of the House.

“There are rewards for being a lone wolf, for being divergent,” Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) said. “When you reward behavior like that, it encourages it. So it’s gonna be very hard to champion teamwork when people who are trying to unify and be part of the team get dinged for it.”

The delegation itself was divided on McCarthy’s eventual ouster, with two supporting McCarthy or Steve Scalise (R-La.) even when their names were no longer in the running.

In the aftermath of McCarthy’s ouster, Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, a conservative ally of Trump, sought the speakership and in a closed-door election made it through four rounds of voting before dropping his bid. Florida Republicans all said they supported Donalds — the first time they had been unified throughout the contest. But Donalds never had close to the overall numbers needed.

After Speaker Mike Johnson was sworn in, Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.) sought to fill the vacant GOP vice chair position. But the conference ultimately picked Rep. Blake Moore (R-Utah), leaving Florida powerless once again.

Outsiders see the delegation’s potential but recognize where it’s at now.

“It’s like watching a good football team that you know is only going to get better,” Rules Committee Chair Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said of the Florida Republican delegation. “It won’t be long before they have the chairmanships and the leadership roles that you would expect a delegation of that size to have.”

The only state with a larger GOP voting block than Florida is Texas, which has historically been able to whip their votes together and holds four chairs this session. With 25 Republicans, Texas only has five more GOP members than Florida. The next largest is California’s 12 member Republican delegation.

“Texas has a long storied history of positioning their people in this way and it’s taken us a little bit to get that in this place.” Cammack said.

Rep. Vern Buchanan, one of the senior-most members of the Florida delegation, was favored to secure the powerful Ways and Means gavel for this session, but eventually lost to Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.).

But with McCarthy out and Johnson in, Buchanan, one of the wealthiest members of Congress, is courting the new speaker. Johnson held his first fundraiser in the role at Buchanan’s Longboat Key mansion, where the senior Florida congressmember helped raise $1.4 million.

Floridians such as Cammack, Buchanan and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart have tried to copy the Lone Star State’s techniques to unify their voting bloc. For example, Texas has mandatory lunches, something Florida Republicans have tried to emulate in recent years — albeit to low but slowly growing attendance levels, Florida members told POLITICO.

But becoming the next Texas will take more than a weekly lunch, in part because of the geographic differences throughout Florida, the third most populous state.

“South Florida is completely different from North Florida. We just happen to be the same state,” Diaz-Balart said. “Our lack of coordination may hurt us.”

At 11:08 p.m. on Dec. 30, 2020, days before Donald Trump prepared to install Jeff Clark atop the Justice Department amid his frenzied push to remain in power, Clark got a text from one key ally, Rep. Scott Perry.

“POTUS seems very happy with your response. I read it just as you dictated,” Perry (R-Pa.) texted the senior Justice Department official.

“I’m praying. This makes me quite nervous. And wonder if I’m worthy or ready,” Clark replied.

“You are the man. I have confirmed it. God does what he does for a reason,” Perry continued.

At the time, Clark was bolstering Trump’s false claims of voter fraud — and Trump, hoping to harness the Justice Department in his bid to overturn the 2020 election, was nearing a decision to appoint Clark as acting attorney general. He ultimately backed off amid a high-level rebellion at DOJ and in the White House. But the newly disclosed text messages show that Clark was girding for the appointment, bolstered by support from Perry, a conservative leader in Congress.

The intimate exchange between two central figures in Trump’s bid to subvert the election was disclosed in a newly unsealed court filing released Wednesday by a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. The exchange was one of dozens described in the filing, released in connection with an effort by special counsel Jack Smith to access communications stored on Perry’s cell phone.

The FBI seized Perry’s phone in August 2022, but he quickly moved to block prosecutors from accessing the files it contained, citing his constitutional protections. The litigation resulted in an appeals court ruling in September that largely backed Perry’s position. Wednesday’s release of the communications was part of the court’s decision to unseal key filings related to the court battle.

The newly disclosed filing reveals an extraordinary web of communications between Perry, who is now the chair of the House Freedom Caucus, and key figures in Trump’s orbit. They include:

A Dec. 12, 2020, text exchange with Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel discussing efforts to challenge Joe Biden’s victory in the election.
A series of exchanges between Perry and a former DOJ colleague, Robert Gasaway, between Dec. 30, 2020, and Jan. 5, 2021, in which Perry embraced a plan to have then-Vice President Mike Pence “admit testimony” prior to the counting of electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021. Perry agreed to “sell[] the idea” with a call to Trump, Pence and Trump adviser John Eastman, but Perry later alerted Gasaway that Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, “will not allow access.”
A description of numerous exchanges between Perry and top Trump administration officials, including Clark, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, senior adviser Eric Herschmann and Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, a former House colleague of Perry.
A Nov, 12, 2020 text to Trump campaign lawyer Alex Cannon advising the campaign on challenges to the election results in Pennsylvania, as well as numerous other contacts with Trump-affiliated lawyers Jenna Ellis, Boris Epshteyn and Justin Clark.
An exchange with Simone Gold, a doctor known for opposing the Covid vaccine who would later plead guilty to misdemeanors for her role in the breach of the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Exchanges with numerous Pennsylvania state legislators, including Doug Mastriano, strategizing ways to challenge the state’s election results.
Texts with “cybersecurity individuals” working with attorney Sidney Powell to challenge the election results, including Phil Waldron. In one exchange, Perry emailed former Trump National Security Council staffer Rich Higgins to relay an “incredibly spooky” allegation that the U.S. Army had confiscated election servers in Germany to help cover up fraud.

But the exchanges with DOJ’s Clark — described in the federal indictment against Trump as one of six unnamed and unindicted co-conspirators in an effort to subvert the 2020 election — are perhaps the most revealing. Clark, a low-profile figure who oversaw the Justice Department’s civil litigation in the final months of the presidential term, was introduced to Trump by Perry amid Trump’s effort to remain in office.
Trump came close to appointing Clark as acting attorney general in the early days of 2021 before backing down amid a mass resignation threat by senior DOJ and White House officials. During this time, Clark pressured top DOJ officials to send a letter to state legislatures urging them to consider sending alternate slates of presidential electors to Congress, and he obtained a security clearance to review intelligence about potential foreign efforts to interfere in the election.

Perry indicated in one newly disclosed exchange that Trump had personally approved a “presidential security clearance.”

In one exchange, Perry told Clark that Trump was upset with Clark for using the Justice Department to defend Pence against a lawsuit brought by another House member, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas). Gohmert was seeking a court ruling declaring that Pence had the power to unilaterally reject Biden’s electoral votes, but DOJ’s civil division — then under Clark’s leadership — stepped in to defend Pence against the suit, which failed.

“[H]e’s not thrilled with your decision regarding Pence and Gohmert,” Perry texted.

Clark disclaimed responsibility for the brief, saying, “The branch within Civil Division responsible for Gohmert brief refused to have anything to do with my brief.”

“Folks are rebelling against [POTUS] because they know time is short and they yearn for Biden,” he added.

Notably, Clark has pointed to his involvement in the Gohmert suit — and the brief he appeared to criticize to Perry — as Clark defends himself against criminal charges brought against him by Georgia prosecutors.

“I was in charge of the defense of this 2020 presidential election case and my name is the first one on the filings defending the Vice President,” he wrote in a September declaration.

The exchanges revealed in the filing also include Perry’s contacts with other House members seeking to reverse Trump’s defeat or to raise challenges to the election results. Perry texted Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) on Nov. 7, 2020 that there was “concrete evidence” of fraud in Michigan. The same day and on Nov. 8, Perry “exchanged text messages with Congressmen Hice, Jordan, and Roy, about issues with ‘the Dominion voting system,’ prompting comment from Rep. Hice, ‘YES!! … And don’t forget, on the Trump campaign call this afternoon, they have uncovered ‘illegal ballot harvesting’ in 3 GA counties,’” the filing reveals.

And Perry also exchanged texts with then Rep.-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene, who complained about “incompetence here in Georgia,” prompting Perry to respond, “Nothing can beat effective cheating.”

Speaker Mike Johnson is edging closer to the same sort of clash with conservatives that helped bring down his predecessor Kevin McCarthy.

The brewing storm, crystallized by Johnson’s comments during a Wednesday meeting with GOP senators, is threatening to end what is left of the Louisiana Republican’s honeymoon running the House. On his right flank, some members are already asking behind closed doors whether Johnson might meet the same fate as the deposed McCarthy — though other GOP lawmakers see that speculation as bluster.

Johnson has antagonized conservatives most acutely by engaging in policy talks with fellow leaders, rather than pushing exclusively for base-pleasing wins that won’t survive in the Senate. That traditional approach won’t hurt Johnson with most of the House GOP — but as McCarthy’s ouster made clear, it only takes a handful of fed-up members to make a speaker’s life difficult.

The new speaker showcased his willingness to stand up to conservatives, as well as its limits, during his visit to the Senate. Inside the room, he delivered two messages: that he would call up an extension of government funding through the end of the fiscal year if lawmakers can’t reach a deal, and that he wants to see much of the House’s conservative border bill as part of any potential Senate agreement to aid Ukraine.

Johnson’s stance on government funding isn’t quite new — House Republican leaders have indicated that they wouldn’t pursue more patches and have no interest in a shutdown at the start of an election year. And his hard line on border talks amounts to a major setback for the Senate’s bipartisan work. Still, the GOP frustration with him goes beyond the Freedom Caucus.

“He continues to play games,” a livid Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) said in an interview. “We are talking about a man [who] 30 days ago said that he was an anti-CR guy. We are talking about a man 30 days ago that was anti-Ukraine funding. … It shows me he was never really morally convicted in his positions to begin with.

“He just did a 180 on everything he believed in,” Miller added, “and that to me is disgusting.”

Miller, an ally of McCarthy and former President Donald Trump, called Johnson a “joke,” describing the speaker’s decision to attach IRS cuts to Israel aid “a slap in the face to every Jew” and a “fucking dumb” choice that set a precedent of tying domestic policy to foreign aid. He made clear that his complaints stemmed from the speaker’s decision to not take up funding bills this week, as a shutdown deadline looms.

Other conservatives characterized their frustration with Johnson in gentler but clearer terms.

“People are dealing with a little bit of disapprobation,” said Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), among the eight Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy. “I don’t know what people are gonna do.”

The former chief of the conservative Freedom Caucus said that while he sees improvement in Johnson compared to McCarthy, he wouldn’t give Johnson a “great grade right now myself.” Biggs likened Johnson’s grade so far to the grammar school categories of “needing improvement” and “unsatisfactory results.”

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) put it more succinctly, describing Johnson’s performance rating as “plummeting.”

A spokesperson for Johnson pushed back on the criticism, noting that he will continue to fight for top conservative priorities.

“Speaker Johnson’s views have not changed,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “He will continue fighting to stop the flow of illegal migrants and illicit drugs through our wide open Southern border, demand accountability for any aid to Ukraine, and ensure [the foreign intelligence law known as] Section 702 is reformed to prevent abuses from ever occurring again.”

The wrath toward Johnson is by no means universal on the right, which cheered his recent move to release footage from the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), one of the founding members of the Freedom Caucus, praised Johnson as a “steadfast conservative leader,” arguing in a statement that he has the “full faith of the Republican conference.” Rep. Ben Cline (R-Va.), another member of the group, also described the new speaker as “one of us.”

“Conservative members of our conference understand that Speaker Johnson has been handed an incredibly difficult task, and we trust him to continue governing as the steady conservative we have always known him to be,” Cline said.

Since earlier this summer, conservatives have demanded government spending cuts below the budget levels established by the $1.59 trillion debt ceiling deal reached earlier this year. That push led to Republicans slicing $119 billion from that bipartisan total across a dozen annual spending bills, forcing vulnerable moderates to take hard votes for months and frustrating some unwilling GOP appropriators.

But on Wednesday, some of those same conservatives began more actively telegraphing a concession of sorts: They’d reluctantly entertain the same $1.59 trillion topline they once spurned.

“It’s still too much for many of us,” said Freedom Caucus Chair Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) of that spending level. He added that the House should reject funding “gimmicks” that effectively pad that total, drawing the ire of fiscal hawks.

That demand to scrap “side deals” to the debt agreement is contentious in and of itself — since those deals were critical to the two-year budget accord that helped win support from Democrats and the White House. That agreement, through various accounting tricks, would have added about $54 billion to nondefense funding to help soften other cuts. Democrats have since called it a major win.

Still, Perry acknowledged in previously unheard terms that House conservatives would not get what they want on spending: “$1.59 trillion is too expensive for many of us, but we realize that $1.47 trillion is not going to happen.”

Other conservatives have aligned with Perry, including Roy. That doesn’t mean the Texan, whom McCarthy installed on the powerful Rules Committee that determines what comes to the floor, is copacetic with Johnson.

“Every conversation that I’m hearing about is not a good one. So I suggest that should change quickly, or it is not going to work out very well,” Roy said Wednesday, pointing to government funding, border security and other matters that he feels Johnson is mishandling.

“That’s the stuff of destruction of the Republican Party,” Roy added.

The Texan declined to talk about whether conservatives are entertaining ousting Johnson, but Miller said plainly that the speaker is on his way to attracting enough critics to possibly force a removal vote.

While Miller didn’t say if he would vote to remove Johnson, he predicted that Johnson, who was elected unanimously by House Republicans last month, wouldn’t get the votes to be speaker if the GOP voted again this week.

“He would probably lose 60 to 80, and you can take that to the bank,” Miller said.

To some conservatives, Johnson committed his first cardinal sin earlier this month by passing a short-term government funding patch. Johnson has repeatedly argued that he inherited a tough situation and that his hands were tied.

Senators who met with Johnson on Wednesday didn’t see his acceptance of a potential continuing resolution — funding the government at current levels through Oct. 1 — as a shot across the bow to fellow Republicans. For North Dakota GOP Sen. Kevin Cramer, it was more of a concession to reality.

“Whether that was a promise or a threat, … I think it’s actually obvious, just stating that fact that he doesn’t have the votes for another short-term CR,” Cramer said.

Some of McCarthy’s fiercest critics agree with Johnson that he started with a bad hand, including the conservative who first started floating a vote to evict the former speaker.

“I am sympathetic to … the spending, appropriation circumstances. He did not set that table,” said Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.), a Freedom Caucus member seeking statewide office next year.

Bishop added that he thinks Johnson will be an “extremely successful speaker,” saying he has enough room “to make errors, even.”

Asked about an ouster vote, Bishop deemed it “out of the question.”

Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), who also voted to eject McCarthy, similarly indicated it was too early to wade into eviction talk. Good did say, however, that Johnson’s grace period is over.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), credited as the architect of McCarthy’s departure, used a home-state sports analogy to suggest that it’s too soon to judge the speaker.

“Seminoles were down 12-0 in the first half. Ended up beating the Gators like a drum in the second half,” he said in a text. “Because they made adjustments.”

Anthony Adragna, Katherine Tully-McManus, Daniella Diaz and Caitlin Emma contributed to this report.