Kevin McCarthy's critics are privately mulling who they could back if the California Republican loses his gavel.

As Kevin McCarthy navigates a spending fight with his speakership on the line, some of his critics are privately mulling who they could back if the California Republican loses his gavel.

Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.), a member of the Freedom Caucus, told POLITICO he had a name in mind — which he declined to disclose — though he argued the conference’s immediate focus should be on the spending fight, where conservatives are pushing for steeper spending cuts.

“I think I know who the right person is,” Bishop said when asked if the dynamic had changed since January, when McCarthy’s opponents went through a rotating list of names without a clear consensus pick.

Bishop said he had “muttered” the name he has in mind to a couple of other people and “have found surprisingly that they have been thinking very much the same thing.”

During January’s historic speaker gavel fight, McCarthy’s opponents supported several other contenders. Each name, however, struggled to gain momentum within the broader conference, including Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) and former President Donald Trump.

And even if the GOP rebels were able to boot McCarthy from the speaker’s office, it’s far from clear that that another consensus candidate would readily emerge. Some of the Californian’s allies have suggested they would simply keep voting for him as long as he wants it.

There’s no sign McCarthy’s critics are ready to imminently attempt removing his gavel. But they’ve warned they are closely watching his actions as he navigates the conference’s intra-party battles over funding the government, as well as his actions on a separate impeachment inquiry.

But Bishop, who is running for North Carolina attorney general, has said he personally supports a motion to vacate against McCarthy, though he would not file one on his own. And on Wednesday he said Republicans’ focus for now should be on trying to get their conference to embrace spending cuts and the border policies they want in a government funding bill. Congress has until the end of the month to prevent a shutdown.

“I think our priority and our efforts would be better exerted on … the immediacy of the appropriations process. Focusing on delivering a different course than what has been done before,” he added.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), a Freedom Caucus ally, has threatened to trigger a motion to vacate against McCarthy if he brings a “clean” short-term spending bill to the floor. He also left himself multiple other opportunities to trigger a motion to vacate and pushed for McCarthy to hold votes on balanced budgets, term limits and Biden family subpoenas and the impeachment of Joe Biden.

A reporter on Tuesday found a resolution in a Capitol bathroom that appeared to be a motion to vacate resolution drafted recently by Gaetz.

The Florida Republican said on Tuesday that he hadn’t seen the tweet, but didn’t deny he had drafted the resolution. Instead, he argued that if McCarthy gets a motion to vacate actually filed against him depends on the Californian’s actions.

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