For a third day, divided Republicans left the US House speaker’s seat vacant Thursday as party leader Kevin McCarthy failed and again failed to win enough votes to grab the chamber’s gavel in a torturous series of ballots.
The pressure mounted as McCarthy lost the seventh, eighth and ninth rounds of voting, equaling the number he took the last time it happened 100 years ago in a contested presidential race. But with his supporters and enemies seemingly at an impasse, feelings of both boredom and despair seemed increasingly apparent, with no end in sight.
One McCarthy critic, Congressman Matt Goetz of Florida, even voted for Donald Trump, a symbolic but clear sign of broader divisions over the future of the Republican Party.
That’s not happening,” said Congresswoman Lauren Bobert of Colorado, who nominated a new alternative, Kevin Hearn of Oklahoma, and urged her colleagues to consider a future without McCarthy, saying, “We need a leader who is not from a broken system.”
McCarthy could be seen speaking, one-on-one, in whispered conversations on the House floor, and he met privately earlier with colleagues determined to persuade Republicans to end the paralyzing debate that has clouded the new Republican majority.
“We’re having good discussions and I think everybody wants to find a solution,” McCarthy told reporters shortly before the House voted in its third session.
Despite endless talk, signs of concessions and a public spectacle unlike any in recent political memory, the way forward remains extremely uncertain. What began as a political novelty, the first time since 1923 that a candidate did not win the first-ballot gavel, has turned into a bitter GOP feud and a deepening potential crisis.
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Democrat Jeffries continues to win the most votes
Democrat Hakeem Jeffries of New York was re-nominated by the Democrats. He won the most votes in every vote, but also fell short of a majority.
Republican supporters have repeatedly raised the name of Congressman Byron Donalds of Florida, assuring that the impasse, which increasingly carries undercurrents of race and politics, will continue.
Donalds, who is black, is seen as a future party leader and a counterpoint to Democratic leader Jeffries, who is the first black leader of a major political party in the US Congress and is on track to become speaker one day.
Incoming Democratic Party leader Hakeem Jeffries was nominated by his party for the third day in a row. Jeffries won the plurality vote in every vote. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Another black Republican, newly elected John James, nominated McCarthy on the seventh ballot. Republican Brian Mast of Florida, a veteran, appeared to wipe away a tear when he nominated McCarthy for the eighth seat and insisted that the California Republican was not like previous Republicans who were ridiculed by conservatives.
On the ninth ballot, conservative Freedom Caucus member Troy Nels of Texas made the nomination.
“This fight we’re fighting has got to end,” Nels told his colleagues.
Donalds was the absentee choice, nominated this round by McCarthy’s staunch opponent Matt Rosendale of Montana.
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy sits on the floor of the House of Representatives as an aide takes notes before the seventh round of voting for a new speaker on the third day of the 118th Congress on Thursday. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Bitter feud of the Republican Party
McCarthy is under increasing pressure from restive Republicans and Democrats to find the votes he needs or step down so the House can fully reopen and get down to business.
The incoming Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs, Armed Services and Intelligence Committees said national security was at risk.
“The Biden administration has no oversight and no oversight of the White House,” Republicans Michael McCaul, Mike Rogers and Mike Turner wrote in a joint statement. “We cannot allow personal politics to put the safety and security of the United States at risk.”
But McCarthy’s right-wing detractors seem intent on waiting for him to come out as long as necessary.
Congressman Scott Perry, the leader of the Freedom Caucus, said McCarthy could not be trusted and tweeted his displeasure that negotiations for rule changes and other concessions were being made public.
“The deal is NOT done,” Perry wrote on Twitter. “When trust is betrayed and leaks are targeted, it’s even harder to trust.”
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Even if Kevin McCarthy prevails to become speaker of the US House of Representatives, the past few days have shown that the narrow majority held by Republicans could easily be disrupted by the ultraconservative Freedom Caucus, says Ursula Perano, political reporter for The Daily Beast.
Failures tend to reduce the power of the speaker
The House resumed at noon Thursday, and it could be a long day.
The new Republican-majority House was not expected to meet on Friday, the anniversary of the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. A protracted and divisive speaker’s battle would almost certainly highlight the fragility of American democracy since the attempted uprising two years ago .
To gain support, McCarthy has already agreed to many of the demands of Freedom Caucus members who have been agitating for rule changes and other concessions.
Proponents, led mostly by the Freedom Caucus, are looking for ways to reduce 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. McCarthy acknowledged some changes in the rules package released over the New Year’s weekend, but for some it didn’t go far enough.
U.S. Rep. Matt Goetz speaks with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green on Thursday. Goetz voted for Donald Trump on the seventh ballot in a symbolic gesture, even though Trump has endorsed McCarthy. (Evelyn Hochstein/Reuters)
Those who oppose McCarthy do not all have the same grievances, and he may never be able to win over some of them. A small core group of Republicans seems unwilling to ever vote for McCarthy.
“I’m ready to vote all night, all week, all month and never for this guy,” Goetz said.
Since 1923, the election for president has not gone through multiple votes. The longest battle over the gavel began in late 1855 and lasted two months, with 133 ballots, during debates over slavery on the eve of the Civil War.
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