"Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California, who made history as the first speaker to be ousted from the post, announced on Wednesday that he would leave the House at the end of the year but said he planned to remain engaged in Republican politics.

Mr. McCarthy's resignation, which he announced in an opinion essay in The Wall Street Journal, will bring to a close a 16-year stint in Congress in which he rose from a member of the self-proclaimed 'Young Guns' — Republicans driving to build their party's majority in the House — to the position second in line to the presidency."