Kevin McCarthy has a huge challenge
CNN
It is never a good idea to campaign too openly for a future congressional leadership post which assumes an outcome in an upcoming election. Experience dictates members of Congress demonstrate prudence and humility before voters cast their ballots, sometimes in unpredictable ways. House Democrats learned this hard lesson in 2020 as they underperformed unexpectedly and nearly lost their majority, while Joe Biden won the presidency by a comfortable margin.
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy knows all this but is under pressure to marshal support for his likely run for House Speaker after the 2022 midterm in the event the GOP captures the majority in the House, as most pundits and pollsters are predicting. Still, it's not a good idea to be very public about any of these internal deliberations based on the recent history and the plight of former GOP House speakers.