WASHINGTON – For the first time in nearly 100 years, members of the House of Representatives left the floor on the first day of the new Congress, not knowing who would be speaker of the House.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) failed in three separate votes on the House floor to secure a majority needed by all House members to give him the speaker’s gavel, blocked by a group of right-wing Republicans and all House Democrats.
In the first two votes, McCarthy lost 19 Republicans, 15 votes short of the 218 needed to win. Third, 20 Republicans voted for someone other than McCarthy.
While it may not be a permanent setback, McCarthy’s failure to win the speakership in the first election is history. The House has not required more than one ballot to elect a speaker since December 1923, according to the Congressional Research Service.
The House of Representatives cannot function without a speaker, so members must vote again. The three votes took place over four hours. At least one more vote will come Wednesday after lawmakers agreed by voice vote to adjourn until noon.
McCarthy knew he would lose the first vote. At a party meeting Tuesday morning, McCarthy told his colleagues he’s got the job — and the House will keep voting until he wins.
“We may have a fight on the floor, but it’s a fight for the conference and the state, and that’s fine with me,” McCarthy told reporters after the meeting.
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) offered himself as an alternative to McCarthy, although he lost badly in an internal election between the House Republican Conference in November. Biggs got 10 Republican votes on the first ballot, while Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) got the most of any other anti-McCarthy GOP member.
On the second ballot, the Republicans who opposed McCarthy all supported Jordan, even though Jordan himself had enthusiastically supported McCarthy. Switching to Jordan had no effect on the results. On the third ballot, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) voted for Jordan after having voted for McCarthy the first two times.
Democrats, for their part, all voted for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (DN.Y.), who is slated to serve as minority leader. Democrats murmured and laughed every time Republicans announced their vote for someone other than McCarthy.
Biggs has led the anti-McCarthy faction along with Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), who chairs the House Freedom Caucus, plus Reps. Bob Good (R-Va.), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Ralph Norman (RS .C.) and Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), who are all members of the caucus.
Good said there that the consensus candidate will appear in the second ballot but refused to name him in a Fox News interview. Apparently, the alternative candidate is Jordan, although Jordan does not have a path to the speaker because the moderates do not support him. Good said the process can last several hours – or days.
McCarthy’s strategy seems to hold votes until detractors withdraw themselves or buckle under pressure from the rest of the conference. But since he lost an additional vote in the third round of voting, this approach seems unlikely to work.
“I hold the record for the longest speech on the floor,” McCarthy said before the vote. “I also have no problem getting the record for most votes for a speaker.”
Of course, Freedom Caucus members have challenged McCarthy because he won’t fight hard enough against President Joe Biden’s administration, and he wants to strengthen rank-and-file lawmakers in a chamber that has for years been dominated by the speaker, who controls when the House votes and whether bills reach the floor. .
But the group is better known for fomenting chaos and openly advocating for a government shutdown. Biggs and Perry are trying to help former President Donald Trump undermine the will of the American people at the polls to cancel the results of the 2020 Election. To the same end, Norman wants the White House to declare “Marshall Law.”
Additional reporting by Jonathan Nicholson.