Historic defeat in Washington: Republican Kevin McCarthy failed to be elected Speaker of the US House of Representatives on his first attempt. The second and third attempts also failed. In the end the meeting was adjourned. The last time, a hundred years ago, that a vote for a powerful office required more than one ballot paper, and a parliamentary group refused to support its candidate in the first round.
The election of the President is the first major act of the newly elected House of Representatives. And until the presidency is clarified, nothing works: the House of Representatives cannot begin its work, not even new deputies can be sworn in. McCarthy received only 203 out of 434 votes in the first round – he would have needed 218. 19 of his party colleagues refused to vote for him.
The second round of voting started immediately after the first. This again demonstrated the internal turmoil of the Republican faction. Representative Jim Jordan re-nominated McCarthy and urged his fellow party members to close ranks. One of McCarthy’s staunchest opponents, Rep. Matt Gaetz, in turn nominated Jordan and asserted that it might be best to pick someone who did not want the position so badly. In McCarthy’s short nomination speech, Jordan did indeed show more visions of the future than he had ever heard from him. Then Jordan received 19 votes, and finally 20 in the third round.
One Republican rebel is Chip Roy of Texas. He told CNN he was voting against McCarthy because the House „should work differently.” Therefore, Roy is disturbed by the fact that votes on expenses are often linked together. For example, he would have liked to vote separately on US aid to Ukraine, but this was tied to a major balancing act.
Republicans had taken control of the chamber in the election — in the Senate, Democrats under President Joe Biden still hold a slim majority. The position of Speaker of the House, which Democrat Nancy Pelosi has held in recent years, ranks third in the US national ranking after the president and vice president.
The record number is 133 ballots
Several of his party colleagues rebelled against McCarthy in the run-up to the vote and declared before the vote that they would not support him. Given the narrow majority, it has been suggested that McCarthy might miss the necessary majority on the first ballot.
McCarthy was belligerent just before the session, saying, „I hold the record for the longest speech in plenary.” He has no problem setting a record for most votes in the House of Representatives vote. The record is 133 votes and dates from 1856.
Each ballot is long because all MPs are called individually to name their preferred candidate. Even if McCarthy eventually prevailed, he would emerge weak from the struggle and would have some trouble marshalling a majority on the floor of Congress for years to come.
After weeks of debates with his opponents behind closed doors, visibly upset, McCarthy went on the offensive before the first ballot and publicly attacked his critics. McCarthy said they are all about personal advancement, not country.
Long attempts at reconciliation
The 57-year-old has been trying for a long time in internal negotiations with all sorts of concessions to change the opinions of his critics. McCarthy revealed that he was told on Monday that he would only get the necessary votes if he provided certain members of the group with certain offices and budgets. McCarthy said that one of his opponents, Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz, said bluntly that he did not care if the Democratic nominee won the election.
He lamented that his critics did not care about America, but only themselves. „I will always fight to put the American people first – not a few individuals trying to get their way.” So there may be a „battle” in the plenary of the chamber, but it’s about the whole group and the country, „and that’s fine with me,” he said.
Behind the McCarthy feud, there are fundamental disagreements among Republicans about the path and leadership in the future. The party is torn between right-wing supporters of former President Donald Trump and the party’s more moderate members. This is especially true of the faction in the House of Representatives.
