Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is disrupting the Republican Party’s efforts to avoid contested primaries, including in races with GOP incumbents, ahead of must-win general election races next year.

Gaetz is endorsing insurgent candidates in contests where former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) or the National Republican Congressional Committee, the party’s House campaign arm, have thrown their support toward their own candidates of choice. The move places Gaetz once again at odds with the man whose ouster he orchestrated.

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In Ohio’s 9th Congressional District, a top target for Republicans this cycle, McCarthy has thrown his support behind former state Rep. Craig Riedel. Gaetz, on the other hand, is backing J.R. Majewski, who failed to unseat incumbent Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) as the party’s nominee in 2022.

McCarthy endorsed state Rep. Heidi Kasama in the GOP primary for Nevada’s 3rd District, while Gaetz threw his support behind former state Rep. Elizabeth Helgelien. Kasama and Helgelien are competing to take on incumbent Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV) next year and deprive her of a fourth term in an R+2 district.

Incumbent Rep. Mike Bost (R-IL) has the National Republican Congressional Committee, the House GOP campaign arm, and McCarthy’s full support for his reelection bid. That has unsurprisingly not deterred Gaetz from weighing into the race in support of Bost’s primary challenger.

Darren Bailey, the party’s 2022 gubernatorial nominee who lost to Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL), is challenging Bost’s bid to be the GOP nominee for his seat, which is viewed as critical to Republicans holding on to their House majority. McCarthy reportedly criticized Bailey at an Illinois fundraiser earlier this month for challenging Bost, blaming him for Republicans losing four congressional seats last year.

Backed by seven of his GOP colleagues, Gaetz led the charge to oust McCarthy in early October. Gaetz and McCarthy have long had a fraught relationship, though their feud sparked national headlines as the former blocked McCarthy’s speakership bid in January.

McCarthy has argued that Gaetz’s efforts to take him down were based on personal grievances over his failure to shut down the ethics inquiry into allegations of sexual misconduct and misuse of campaign funds by the Florida lawmaker. Gaetz has denied those claims.

Asked if he was getting involved with those primaries because of his feud with McCarthy, Gaetz told Politico, “He’s old news. Mike Johnson’s speaker now.”

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He also pushed back on the notion that he was supporting candidates who could lose the general election, saying, “Primaries are a really important part of the political process. It shows the direction the party is moving.”

Representatives for the NRCC did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment on the Gaetz endorsements, nor did spokespeople for Gaetz or McCarthy.