WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans will open the second day of the new Congress much like the first — with leader Kevin McCarthy trying to become House speaker despite losing several rounds of voting that have thrown the new GOP majority into disarray.
It was the first time in 100 years that the nominee for House speaker could not take the gavel in the first vote, but McCarthy seemed undeterred by the gravity of the moment. Instead, he vowed to fight to the end, encouraged, he said, by former President Donald Trump to end the chaos and pull the Republican Party together.
The House is scheduled to meet Wednesday after a stalemate essentially forced all other business to a halt, waiting for Republicans to choose a speaker.
“Today, is it the day I want? No,” McCarthy told reporters late Tuesday at the Capitol after a series of closed-door meetings.
McCarthy said Trump wanted him to stay in the race and told him to end the House Republican chaos and pull the party together.
The former president “wants to see the Republicans united so they can get things done,” McCarthy said.
Asked if he would quit, McCarthy said, “That’s not going to happen.”
It’s a tumultuous start to the new Congress and points to trouble ahead with Republicans now in control of the House.
Tensions among the House majority are new as campaign promises stall. Without a speaker, the House cannot be fully formed – swearing in its members, naming committee chairs, participating in floor proceedings and launching investigations into the Biden administration. The families of the MPs have been waiting, because usually the day of celebration is chaotic, with children playing in the hallway or squirming in the arms of their parents.
But it’s unclear how the ousted GOP leader can rebound to win over right-wing conservatives who reject his leadership. It usually takes a majority of the House to be speaker, 218 votes — although the threshold can be lowered if members are absent or just vote, there’s a strategy McCarthy has in mind.
McCarthy won by no more than 203 votes in three rounds of voting, losing by 20 Republicans from a slim 222-seat majority,
Not since 1923 has the election of the speaker been so many ballots, and the longest and most terrible battle for the hammer began at the end of 1855 and dragged out for two months, with 133 ballots, during the debate on slavery during the Civil War. .
“Kevin McCarthy will not be speaker,” said Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., one of the holdouts.
A new generation of conservative Republicans, many aligned with Trump’s Make America Great Again agenda, want to restore business as usual in Washington, and are committed to ending McCarthy’s rise without concessions to priorities.
In many ways, the challenge from the right is like the last time Republicans seized power in the House, when Tea Party Republicans brought hardball politics and government shutdowns after winning control in the 2010 midterm elections.
As the voting spectacle dragged on, McCarthy backers implored the holdouts to fall in line for the California Republican.
“We’re all here to get things done,” said the second-ranking Republican, Rep. Steve Scalise, in a speech that nominated McCarthy for a vote and asked his colleagues to drop their protests.
Railing against Democratic President Joe Biden’s agenda, Scalise, himself the GOP’s compromise choice, said, “We can’t begin to fix these problems until we elect Kevin McCarthy as the next speaker.”
But the deadlock forced a third and final vote before Republican leaders hurriedly adjourned Tuesday afternoon.
“The American people are watching, and that’s good,” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, who nominated fellow conservative Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio as an alternative for speaker.
Jordan, a McCarthy rival-turned-ally, has twice been pushed forward by conservatives, but he doesn’t seem to want the job. Ohio Republican lined up to chair the Judiciary Committee, and rose during the floor debate to urge colleagues instead of voting for McCarthy.
“We’ve got to get around them, come together,” Jordan said.
In general, a core group of 19 Republicans — then 20 — voted for someone other than McCarthy. The first ballot sent votes to Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Jordan and others, while Jordan only won votes on the next two ballots.
The standoff over McCarthy has been building since Republicans appeared on track to win a House majority in the midterm elections in November. While the Senate remains in Democratic hands, barely, House Republicans are eager to face Biden after two years of Democrats controlling both houses of Congress. The conservative Freedom Caucus led McCarthy’s opposition, believing that he was not conservative enough or tough enough to take on Democrats.
To win support, McCarthy has agreed to many demands from the Freedom Caucus, which has been agitating for rule changes and other concessions that give the rank-and-file more influence in the legislative process. He has been here before, after dropping out of the speaker’s race in 2015 when he failed to win from the conservatives.
Late Tuesday, pizza, Chick-fil-A and tacos were brought to various meeting rooms in the Capitol after the vote failed as supporters and detractors of McCarthy hunkered down to figure out how to choose the speaker.
“Everything is on the table,” said McCarthy ally Rep. Patrick McHenry, RN.C. – expect, he said, having the leader step aside. “Not at all. That’s not on the table.”
Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., Chairman of the Freedom Caucus and leader of Trump’s efforts to challenge the 2020 presidential election has said earlier that it is up to McCarthy to meet the demands and change the dynamic.
Democrats enthusiastically nominated Jeffries, who took over the leadership of the party, as their choice for speaker — a mostly symbolic gesture for the minority, but one that was especially important to disparate Republicans.
While Jeffries won the most votes overall, 212, it was not a majority for speaker.
McCarthy focused on those numbers late Tuesday. If McCarthy can win 213 votes, and then persuade the remaining naysayers to just vote now, he will be able to lower the threshold required according to the rules to have a majority.
It’s a strategy former speakers of the House of Representatives, including outgoing Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican Speaker John Boehner used when they faced opposition, won the gavel less than 218 votes.
McCarthy said last Tuesday at the Capitol: “You got 213 votes, and the rest didn’t call any other names, so you can win.”