With votes ongoing and pressure mounting, divided House Republicans have been unable to agree on the party's leader, with Illinois Rep. Mary Miller among a group of holdouts refusing to vote for Kevin McCarthy as the stalemate continues for a third day.
McCarthy lost a seventh round and was gaining no ground in an eighth. With his supporters and foes seemingly stalemated, feelings of both boredom and desperation seemed increasingly evident, with no end in sight.
As the ninth vote got underway, Miller, a downstate Illinois rep, continued to cast her support for Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., after voting in earlier rounds for Rep. Jim Jordan, despite the Ohio Republican delivering a speech formally nominating McCarthy for the position.
Miller is among nearly two dozen Republican party holdouts, many of whom again put forward Donalds of Florida, assuring the stalemate that increasingly carried undercurrents of race and politics would continue.
Donalds, who is Black, is seen as an emerging party leader and GOP counterpoint to the Democratic leader, Jeffries, who is the first Black leader of a major political party in the U.S. Congress and on track himself to become speaker some day.
One McCarthy critic, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, even cast his votes for Donald Trump, a symbolic but pointed sign of the broader divisions over the Republican Party's future.
McCarthy is under growing pressure from restless Republicans, and Democrats, to find the votes he needs or step aside, so the House can open fully and get on with the business of governing.
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But McCarthy's right-flank detractors appeared intent on waiting him out, as long as it takes.
What to know as the House is now in its third day of the speaker election:
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WHY IS THERE NO SPEAKER?
Needing 218 votes in the full House, McCarthy received just 203 in the first two rounds of voting on the first day — less even than Democrat Hakeem Jeffries in the GOP-controlled chamber — and fared even worse with 202 in round three.
For a fourth, fifth and sixth time Wednesday, Republicans tried to vote McCarthy into the top job as the House plunged deeper into disarray. But the votes were producing almost the same outcome, 20 conservative holdouts still refusing to support him, and leaving him far short of the 218 typically needed to win the gavel.
In fact, McCarthy saw his tally slip to 201, as one fellow Republican switched to vote simply present.
“Well, it's Groundhog Day,” said Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., in nominating McCarthy on the sixth ballot.
She said, “To all Americans watching right now, We hear you. And we will get through this — no matter how messy.”
A growing chorus of detractors warned for months that the California Republican did not have the votes to win the constitutionally mandated office, which would make him second in line to the presidency. In response, McCarthy negotiated endlessly with members, including Reps. Andy Biggs, Scott Perry and Matt Gaetz, to win their support.
The negotiations went up until Monday night when members of the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus presented McCarthy with their final offer, which included demands for certain committee assignments in exchange for their votes.
McCarthy refused to oblige, saying he had gone far enough to appease the lawmakers.
“For the last two months, we worked together as a whole conference to develop rules that empower all members, but we’re not empowering certain members over others,” McCarthy told reporters early Tuesday.
As a result, those members and more than a dozen others openly opposed him on the floor.
Pressure was building as McCarthy lost the seventh and eighth rounds of voting, and launched on a historic ninth ballot, tying the number it took the last time this happened, 100 years ago, in a fight to choose a speaker in a disputed election. But with his supporters and foes seemingly stalemated, feelings of both boredom and desperation seemed increasingly evident with no end in sight.
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR THE CHAMBER?
Without a speaker, the House cannot fully form since that person effectively serves as the chamber's presiding officer and the institution’s administrative head.
Swearing in members, naming committee chairs, engaging in floor proceedings and launching oversight investigations will all be delayed until a speaker is elected and sworn into office.
“The spotlight needs to be put on these 19 — now 20 — that are stopping the business of Congress that we got elected to do,” Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said. “It's on them.”
HOW WILL IT GET RESOLVED?
It remains unclear if and when McCarthy will pass the threshold to become the next speaker of the House. The current number of Republicans who have pledged support to other candidates is at 20, with some suspecting that list will grow.
The California Republican vowed to keep fighting despite losing in multiple rounds of voting.
McCarthy could be seen talking, one on one, in whispered conversations in the House chamber, and met privately earlier with colleagues determined to persuade Republican holdouts to end the paralyzing debate that has blighted his new GOP majority.
“We’re having good discussions and I think everyone wants to find a solution,” McCarthy told reporters shortly before the House gaveled in its third session.
Despite endless talks, signs of concessions and a public spectacle unlike any other in recent political memory, the path ahead remained highly uncertain. What started as a political novelty, the first time since 1923 a nominee had not won the gavel on the first vote, has devolved into a bitter Republican Party feud and deepening potential crisis.
On Tuesday, Republicans opposing McCarthy nominated a slew of other candidates, including Biggs, Rep. Jordan of Ohio and even former Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York.
Jordan, the McCarthy rival-turned-ally, was twice pushed forward by conservatives, but he does not seem to want the job. The Ohio Republican is line to become Judiciary Committee chairman, and he rose during the floor debate to urge his colleagues to instead vote for McCarthy.
“We have to rally around him, come together,” Jordan said.
On Wednesday, a right-flank leader from the Freedom Caucus offered a challenge to McCarthy — nominating Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., in another history making moment. Both Jeffries and Donalds are Black.
“This country needs leadership,” said Rep. Chip Roy, the Texas Republican noting the first time in history two Black Americans were nominated for the high office, and lawmakers from both parties rose to applaud.
To be sure, none of them reached a majority of the votes, but it was enough to detract support from McCarthy, who in a 222-213 majority can't afford to lose more than a handful of votes.
The candidate to become speaker needs a majority of the votes from House members who are present and voting. Every lawmaker voting “present” lowers the overall tally needed to reach a majority.
With McCarthy coming up short again on Thursday, the clerk will repeat the roll call vote until he is able to garner a majority or a motion to adjourn is approved.
If McCarthy could win 213 votes, and then persuade the remaining naysayers to simply vote present, he would be able to lower the threshold required under the rules to have the majority.
It's a strategy former House speakers, including outgoing Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican Speaker John Boehner had used when they confronted opposition, winning the gavel with fewer than 218 votes.
Said McCarthy late Tuesday at the Capitol: “You get 213 votes, and the others don’t say another name, that’s how you can win.”
The House, which is one-half of Congress, is essentially at a standstill as McCarthy has failed, one vote after another, to win the speaker's gavel in a grueling spectacle for all the world to see. The ballots have produced almost the same outcome, 20 conservative holdouts still refusing to support him and leaving him far short of the 218 typically needed to win the gavel.
To win support, McCarthy has already agreed to many of the demands of Freedom Caucus members, who have been agitating for rules changes and other concessions that give rank-and-file members more influence.
Mostly, the holdouts led by the Freedom Caucus are seeking ways to shrink the power of the speaker’s office and give rank-and-file lawmakers more influence in the legislative process — with seats on key committees and the ability to draft and amend bills in a more free-for-all process.
One of their key asks is to reinstate a rule that would allow a single lawmaker to seek a motion to vacate the chair — essentially to all a House vote to oust the speaker. It's the same rule a previous era of tea party Republicans used to threaten the removal of Boehner, and McCarthy has resisted reinstating it.
But those opposing McCarthy do not all have the same complaints, and he may never be able to win over some of them. A small core group of Republicans appear unwilling to ever vote for McCarthy.
“I’m ready to vote all night, all week, all month and never for that person,” said Florida Republican Gaetz.
HAS THIS EVER HAPPENED BEFORE?
The last time the House did not elect a speaker on the first ballot was 1923 when the election stretched for nine ballots.
At the time, Republicans had won the majority despite losing a staggering 77 seats, shrinking their margin over Democrats from 171 to just 18. The majority party had named incumbent Rep. Frederick Gillett, R-Mass., to the position, but several other candidates, including a Democrat, received votes during the roll call.
This resulted in a series of ballots over three days before House Majority Leader Nicholas Longworth, R-Ohio, held an emergency meeting with those opposing. Their concern, similarly to those issued against McCarthy, was over a series of rules changes that they believed deserved a fair hearing. Longworth obliged and the next day Gillett garnered the 215 votes he needed to remain speaker.
