Having failed to secure the votes of the 40 members of the House Freedom Caucus, Congressman [mc_name name=’Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)’ chamber=’house’ mcid=’M001165′ ] has bailed on running for Speaker of the House.

Just yesterday, McCarthy picked up the endorsement of former Vice President Dick Cheney and this morning was beginning to circulate a memo with campaign promises for what he’d do as Speaker. But the promises were empty and conservatives were unconvinced.

McCarthy will stay on as Majority Leader now, unless conservatives now want to try to force his hand there. That puts the Speaker’s position wide open. It also suggests [mc_name name=’Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT)’ chamber=’house’ mcid=’C001076′ ] will not be Speaker as McCarthy has been working against him and conservatives are refusing to rally around Chaffetz.

The race is wide open at this point. [mc_name name=’Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL)’ chamber=’house’ mcid=’W000806′ ] continues to hold conservatives. Let’s see if conservatives can rally more too him.