Jay Obernolte: “It is an honor for me to be here to thank my friend and former Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, for his service to this country…”

“It is an honor for me to be here to thank my friend and former Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, for his service to this country and to our Conference. I had the experience of getting to know Kevin when I first decided to run for Congress. I got a call from my predecessor alerting me that he would announce the next day that he was not running for reelection. I had to quite suddenly make the decision about whether or not I wanted to run for Congress. I got a call from Kevin, and Kevin said: Jay, I believe in you. You can do it. I will help you. And he did. Once I was elected and sworn in as a Member of the House of Representatives, I was shocked to discover that I was 1 of over 100 Members of this Chamber who could say that of Kevin. There were over 100 Members who Kevin had given the confidence to step up and serve their country. Kevin and I subsequently became good friends. What I discovered about his leadership style is that it is a leadership style that I think I honor the most, that of servant leader. Every decision that Kevin makes and has made as leader was not for his own self-aggrandizement or his own betterment. The decisions that he made served the interests of the people who he led, the Conference, his constituents, and the Members of this Chamber. He also exhibited a quality that I think is unfortunately pretty rare in public servants, that of humility. Kevin is an amazingly humble man.…”