This time around, after watching the two other Young Guns depart following a withering political assault from the party’s right wing, McCarthy is a survivor and victor in part because of how much he has transformed himself to appeal to the party’s most conservative elements.

McCarthy, 57, ended up on the path to claim the position he has long sought only after pledging fealty to former president Donald Trump and his party’s right-wing base. After winning a contentious internal party vote for the GOP nomination for speaker on Tuesday, he’ll have to work again to appease that right flank in order to win a full House vote in January.