Of all of the times Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has celebrated an election night victory, Tuesday’s win in the Republican primary for Florida’s 1st Congressional District must have been one of the sweetest.

The incumbent Gaetz defeated his opponent, Aaron Dimmock, by more than 40 points, despite a cascade of spending against him by allies of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who was eager to exact revenge against the eight Republicans, led by Gaetz, who orchestrated his ouster last year.

A gloating Gaetz called his win the “important, impactful, and the most joyful victory I’ve had.” He went on to jeer McCarthy for spending $3 million in the race, and urged him to spend more next time, noting that his margin of victory increased from his 2022 primary.

Of all the lawmakers who voted to oust McCarthy, Gaetz was his big fish, but he was not the only member whom the former speaker tried to unseat. Reps. Eli Crane (R-AZ), Nancy Mace (R-SC), and Bob Good (R-VA) all faced well-funded challengers backed by McCarthy. Ultimately, only Good lost by a razor-thin margin, in no small part because former President Donald Trump endorsed his McCarthy-supported opponent.

Gaetz is a complicated political figure who is just as loved as he is hated. But unlike a large segment of Republican politicians, he is in tune with the party’s base and is willing to cater to it both in rhetoric and in policymaking.

McCarthy seemed to concede in recent weeks that Gaetz was likely to prevail, but the former speaker indicated that he believed that his effort would at least dent the congressman’s support and damage Gaetz’s prospects for a gubernatorial bid in 2026. If anything, he is now in a stronger position to run for governor in two years than he was on Monday.

For all of his efforts to recruit candidates who could win difficult races in swing districts during his time as the leader of the House GOP, McCarthy neglected to understand the interests of voters in districts that send Republicans to the House regardless of the national environment. In turn, Republican voters thought quite little of him.

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McCarthy’s national approval rating when he left office was 22 points underwater. For the leader of the House GOP to be so personally unpopular requires Republican voters to have a sour opinion of him. In contrast, his successor, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who has made an effort to support more conservative candidates in a number of districts, is only underwater by 3 points. However, a large number of people are still unfamiliar with him.

As bitter of a pill as it is for McCarthy to swallow, his ouster was not as unpopular among the GOP base as he might think. And the failure of his revenge tour is about the most clear evidence that Republican voters are not so pro-McCarthy as he thought.