If you’re taking a trip to the nation’s capital, you may run into a familiar face: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Over the last several weeks, McCarthy has been holding pop-up meet-and-greets with visitors from across the country, and even some tourists from abroad, in what he tells Spectrum News is his effort to become “the people’s speaker.”

What You Need To Know

  • House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has been holding pop-up meet-and-greets with visitors to Capitol Hill as part of his bid to become "the people's speaker"

  • Over the last three weeks, McCarthy's office said the speaker has met with hundreds of visitors from across the country and internationally

  • McCarthy has been able to hold together a fractious House GOP Caucus to confirm a hard-fought deal with President Joe Biden to stave off debt default

  • The speaker plans to continue meeting with constituents during the August recess, but will do so from the road, rather than the halls of Congress

“I want to change this place. So it’s the 'people's house,' I want to be the 'people's speaker,'” McCarthy said in an exclusive interview with Spectrum News. “I want people to understand what's going on here. I want them to have input, I want them to have a say, so we try to do things a lot different[ly].”

McCarthy and other Republicans criticized Democrats for shutting down visitor access to the Capitol during the COVID-19 pandemic. Democrats defended that decision, citing safety concerns. When Republicans took over the House of Representatives, McCarthy made it one of his top priorities to reopen the Capitol to full pre-pandemic access.

For the last three weeks, McCarthy's office says he has met with hundreds of visitors, from places as close as Virginia to as far away as Romania. 

“I’ve been there! Beautiful country,” he told one couple as he greeted them and took a photo.

The photo-ops give the self-described "people person" a chance to chat with the everyday Americans he now finds himself somewhat shielded from as speaker. When the Bakersfield congressman went from minority leader to speaker, his security detail increased to reflect his status as the third-most powerful politician in the country. 

But McCarthy has found ways to circumvent what could be an isolating job. He regularly holds press conferences with reporters in Statuary Hall, one of his favorite rooms in the Capitol for its history as the former House chamber in the pre-Civil War days.

It’s also where he holds these meet-and-greets, which give him a chance to connect with Americans he now represents beyond his California district.

“Lima, [Ohio]? That’s Jim Jordan’s district. That was in…what was that show on TV?” McCarthy recently asked one tourist who hailed from the Buckeye State.

“Glee,” she told him, referring to the television show that began airing in 2009.

“And that’s where we build our tanks,” he told her.

“Yes, exactly!” she responded, clearly delighted McCarthy knew so much about her hometown.

McCarthy has been on the job as speaker for over seven months, but it has been anything but easy. After marathon rounds of voting to be elected speaker, McCarthy was confronted with a debt ceiling battle earlier this summer that spanned weeks of back and forth between Republicans and the White House. The deal almost fell apart in the 11th hour due to hard-right GOP members rejecting the deal.

But McCarthy was able to right the ship, and has somehow managed to hold all of the pieces of his fractious caucus together thus far, though many are still eyeing his potential demise as the top Republican. In his seven months as speaker, McCarthy has tried to chart his own path in the role, straying from his predecessors preferred studio press conferences with press only. McCarthy can often be found giving a history lesson to a tour group or speaking with reporters on his way from his office to the House floor and back again.

McCarthy has done press conferences all around the Capitol over the last several months. Spectrum News asked his office why he has preferred this over the traditional press conference of his predecessors.

"It's to show folks back home different parts of the building they’ve never seen before," a McCarthy aide said. “Imagine, you’re in D.C. on a school trip or with your family to learn about our nation’s history. Then, suddenly you’re walking behind a press event or you can meet and talk directly with a member of Congress."

As lawmakers head home for August recess, McCarthy will be taking a break from photo lines on Capitol Hill as he hits the road to talk to constituents, but his office says he looks forward to meeting and speaking with visitors.

“We're going to travel across this country going to a lot of different districts, going to my own and many others, listening to the American public, talking about the successes we've had here with the Commitment to America, and then listening to them on other concerns they have that we can continue finishing,” McCarthy told Spectrum News, referencing his road map — first seen before the 2022 general election — to House GOP priorities so far this term.