For a third day, divided Republicans left the speaker’s seat in the U.S. House empty on Thursday as party leader Kevin McCarthy failed to win enough votes to win the chamber’s gavel in an unbearable series of ballots.
The pressure mounted as McCarthy lost the seventh, eighth and ninth rounds of voting, tying the number he took the last time that happened, 100 years ago, in a fight to pick a president in a contested election. But with his supporters and foes seemingly at an impasse, feelings of both boredom and despair seemed increasingly apparent with no end in sight.
One McCarthy critic, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, even voted for Donald Trump, a symbolic but timely sign of broader divisions over the future of the Republican Party.
It’s not happening,” said Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, who nominated a new alternative, Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, and urged colleagues to consider a future without McCarthy, saying, “We need a leader who is not from the broken system “.
McCarthy could be seen speaking one-on-one in hushed conversations on the House floor, before meeting privately with colleagues determined to persuade embattled Republicans to end the stalling debate that has blighted 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 adjourned for its third session.
Despite endless talks, signs of concessions and a public spectacle unlike any in recent political memory, the way forward remained highly uncertain. What began as a political first, the first time since 1923 that a candidate had not won the gavel on the first ballot, has turned into a bitter Republican Party dispute and a deepening potential crisis.
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Democrat Jeffries continues to win the majority of votes
Democrat Hakeem Jeffries of New York was renominated by Democrats. It has won the most votes in every poll, but has also fallen short of a majority.
Republican Party stalwarts repeatedly floated the name of Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, ensuring he would continue the stalemate that increasingly carried racial and political currents.
Donalds, who is black, is seen as a future leader of the party and a counterpoint to Democratic leader Jeffries, who is the first black leader of a major political party in the US Congress, on track to one day become president .
Incoming Democratic leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries was nominated by his party for the third day in a row. Jeffries has won the plurality of votes in each vote. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Another black Republican, newly elected John James, nominated McCarthy on the seventh ballot. Veteran Republican Brian Mast of Florida appeared to wipe away a tear as he nominated McCarthy the eighth, insisting the California Republican was not like previous Republican speakers who are mocked by conservatives.
For the ninth ballot, a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, Troy Nehls of Texas, made the nomination.
“This battle we’re fighting has to end,” Nehls told his colleagues.
Donalds was the hard-nosed pick, nominated this round by McCarthy’s staunch opponent, Montana’s Matt Rosendale.
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy sits on the House floor as an assistant takes notes before the seventh round of voting for a new president on the third day of the 118th Congress on Thursday. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Bitter quarrel of the Republican Party
McCarthy is under increasing pressure from restless Republicans and Democrats to find the votes he needs or stand aside so the House can fully open and get on with the business of governing.
The incoming Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs, Armed Services and Intelligence committees said national security was at risk.
“The Biden administration is unchecked and there is no oversight from the White House,” Republicans Michael McCaul, Mike Rogers and Mike Turner wrote in a joint statement. “We cannot let personal politics jeopardize America’s security.”
But McCarthy’s right-wing detractors seem determined to wait him out, as long as necessary.
Rep. Scott Perry, leader of the Freedom Caucus, said McCarthy can’t be trusted and tweeted his displeasure that negotiations over rule changes and other concessions were made public.
“NO deal done,” Perry wrote on Twitter. “When confidences are betrayed and leaks are targeted, it’s even harder to trust.”
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Even if Kevin McCarthy prevails as speaker of the U.S. House, the past few days have shown that the Republicans’ narrow majority can easily be disrupted by the ultraconservative Freedom Caucus, says Ursula Perano, political reporter for The Daily Beast.
Holdouts seek to reduce the power of the speakers
The House resumed at noon on Thursday and it could be a long day.
The new Republican-majority House was not expected to be in session on Friday, which is the anniversary of the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. A prolonged and divisive fight by the president will almost certainly underscore the fragility of the American democracy after the attempted insurrection two years ago.
To garner support, McCarthy has already agreed to many of the demands of Freedom Caucus members, who have been agitating for rule changes and other concessions.
Mostly, rebels led by the Freedom Caucus are looking for ways to reduce the power of the president’s office and give grassroots lawmakers more influence in the legislative process, with seats on key committees and the ability to delete and amend bills in a freer process for all. McCarthy granted some changes in a rules package released over the New Year’s weekend, but for some it didn’t go far enough.
U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz talks with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Thursday. Gaetz voted for Donald Trump on the seventh ballot in a symbolic gesture, even though Trump has supported McCarthy. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)
McCarthy’s opponents don’t all have the same grievances, and he may never be able to win 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 person,” Gaetz said.
Not since 1923 had the election of a president gone to multiple votes. The longest fight for the gavel began in late 1855 and spanned two months, with 133 ballots, during the slavery debates leading up to the Civil War.