Kevin McCarthy of California, who has been the House Republican leader since 2019, failed to secure the votes necessary to seal the gavel in five rounds of voting Thursday afternoon.
Release Date – 10:30 AM, Fri – 6 January 23
Washington: The U.S. House of Representatives adjourned for the third day in a row, with 11 votes still to go before a new speaker was elected, making it the longest speaker selection contest in 164 years.
The House of Representatives will not meet at noon on Friday, the second anniversary of the Capitol riots in 2021, Xinhua reported.
Kevin McCarthy of California, who has been the House Republican leader since 2019, failed to secure the votes necessary to seal the gavel in five rounds of voting Thursday afternoon.
The House of Representatives has voted 11 times since the 118th Congress opened on Tuesday, making it the longest speakerary race in 164 years.
The lower house of Congress has not voted for a speaker more than once since 1860, when American labor unions squabbled over slavery.
There were 44 rounds of voting.
A group of 20 hardline Republican lawmakers refused to give the California congressman the necessary 218 votes.
The 435-seat House of Commons, with Republicans narrowly ahead of Democrats, cannot do any legislative business until a speaker is elected.
McCarthy has the support of a majority of House Republicans and former President Donald Trump, but 20 hardliners have pressured him to devolve the speakership.
All House Democrats voted for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., to be speaker.
While Jeffries is unlikely to win the job, he will become the first African-American lawmaker to lead a political party in both chambers of Congress.
In the midterm elections on Nov. 8, 2022, Republicans narrowly win the 435-seat House of Representatives by 222 votes to 212, while Democrats retain control of the Senate.
McCarthy sounded defiant in the face of tough headwinds earlier Thursday, saying he would continue to face opposition until he struck a deal with his critics.
“Until there is a deal, everything will be like this. If we can get a deal together, it will be easier,” he told CNN.
Asked for his view that he would realize the result wouldn’t change, McCarthy told the network: “After I win.”
But one of the 20 dissidents, Ralph Norman from South Carolina, told the BBC he didn’t trust McCarthy at all.
In the weeks leading up to the impasse, McCarthy’s team threatened political retaliation if they disobeyed, the congressman said.
“We’re going to be kicked out of committees…we’re going to lose all the privileges we had. We’re basically telling them, ‘If we can’t ask the questions, if we can’t vet the most powerful people we’re going to take to office, then we’re out’ ,” he told the BBC.
The speaker of the House of Representatives is the second presidential candidate after Vice President Kamala Harris.
They set the agenda in the House without which no legislative business can proceed.
