There is now a second Kevin McCarthy catching the attention of Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
But this one is not aiming to be the next U.S. Speaker of the House or celebrating the decline of her poll numbers.
This Kevin McCarthy is a 34-year-old public relations specialist for a software company in Des Moines.
In a video released by the Clinton campaign on Wednesday, the Iowan is now the enlisted counter to the current Republican majority leader—because he shares the same name and is a fierce Clinton defender.
“The Clinton campaign called me on the phone, and they said, ‘By the grace of God, are you a Hillary supporter?’ And I said, ‘I absolutely am,’” the Iowan McCarthy said on Wednesday.
Democrats and Republicans widely panned Republican Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy in Washington over the last week for his remarks about creating the committee to investigate the attack on Benghazi as a means of hurting Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid.
Clinton’s campaign team called the Iowa Democrat last week and filmed the spot at his house on Sunday.
In the video, the Iowan reads critical texts sent to his twitter handle, @KevinMcCarthy, but intended for the Republican McCarthy in Washington.
One tweet: “@kevinmccarthy is a #dork.”
Democrats say the House majority leader's remarks vindicate Clinton and show an admission of the committee’s political intentions. The criticism comes as the congressman vies to take over the speakership for the retiring Speaker John Boehner.
“I just looked at Twitter and there are several hundred notifications sitting there,” Iowa’s McCarthy said several hours after the video posted..
Despite the ad, which only heightened attention to the criticism of the current majority leader, the congressman’s name-sake counterpart in Iowa—a Clinton loyalist who supported her first White House bid—has sympathy for the majority leader’s tough week and his bid to become speaker in a chaotic Republican caucus.
“I can’t speak for the other Kevin McCarthy, but the poor guy is getting hated on by both sides,” the Iowan said. “So in my opinion, which means very little, he’s just as good as the next guy who will show up.”
Until Wednesday, the McCarthy in Iowa was not even the most notable Kevin McCarthy in his own state. Former Iowa Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy is a well-known figure in the state’s Democratic circles.
That McCarthy is also now the co-chair of Draft Biden’s efforts in Iowa.
But to be clear, the software company employee reminded NBC News: “I was the original Kevin McCarthy.”
