Republican Rep.Kevin McCarthywas narrowly elected to succeedNancy Pelosias speaker of the House early Saturday after a dramatic showdown with members of his own party that required 15 rounds of voting before securing the position.
McCarthy, who was chosen as the GOP’s nominee for House speaker in November, has faced opposition from more extreme members of the Republican Party, who see him as unreliable in pushing their desired agenda forward.
Going into Tuesday’s House speaker election, McCarthy had not secured the majority vote required to win — yet he refused to rescind his candidacy, reportedly telling the House Republican Conference ahead of the vote, “I earned this job. We earned this majority, and God dammit we are going to win it today.”
As the first roll call unfolded, McCarthy only received 203 votes, with a shocking 19 Republicans defecting and voting off script for Republicans they’d prefer to see in the position. Representatives on the left unanimously voted for Democratic House LeaderHakeem Jeffries, giving him 212 votes — also short of the necessary number to win.
For thefirst time since 1923, nobody won the House speaker election on the first go-around, pointing to fierce division within the GOP, which should have had an easy time electing a speaker as the majority party.
As is protocol, the roll call was repeated —again and again— until someone received a majority vote, ultimately taking multiple days of negotiations to get his opponents on board.
It wasn’t until Friday that McCarthy made any progress with his adversaries, dwindling the number of defectors from a high of 21 down to single digits and eventually earning the majority vote required.
McCarthy failed to gain enough votes during the 14th round of voting, prompting them to vote on adjournment until Monday, but a last scramble led to a 15th round of votes, clinching the speakership for McCarthy.
As House speaker, McCarthy will now be tasked with swearing in the full legislative body — a process that was supposed to happen Tuesday afternoon, so that the House can begin forming committees and getting to work.
source: people.com
