As McCarthy rises in leadership, his small network of former aides and K Street confidants does as well. Former senior aides downtown include Uber’s Brian Worth, who served as his coalitions director; former policy director and general counsel Stephen Pinkos, now at American Continental Group; and former communications director Erica Elliott, now at Crowell & Moring.

Over the past seven years, McCarthy has amassed a small “kitchen cabinet” of lobbyists whom he works closely with, including Greg Maurer of Facebook; Kirsten Chadwick of Fierce, Isakowitz & Blalock; Dan Meyer of the Duberstein Group and Brian Conklin of USAA. Joe Wall of Goldman Sachs, Amy Best of American Express, Kyle Nevins of Capitol Counsel and Ryan Triplette of Franklin Square Group are also in McCarthy’s circle.

While McCarthy is hardly a policy wonk, at least two industries — tech and energy — are considered big winners if he becomes majority leader.