Representative Kevin McCarthy won’t claim the mantle of US House speaker on the first round of voting Tuesday, the first time in a century that the top position in Congress has required more than one ballot.
(Bloomberg) — Representative Kevin McCarthy won’t claim the mantle of US House speaker on the first round of voting Tuesday, the first time in a century that the top position in Congress has required more than one ballot.
As voting got under way in the House chamber, at least 11 Republicans cast ballots for someone else, more than enough to deny McCarthy a majority. Earlier in the day McCarthy acknowledged to his colleagues during a private meeting that he expected to lose on the first ballot, as he could only afford to lose four GOP votes in the narrowly divided House if all Democrats oppose him, as expected, and all members are voting.
The steadfast opposition from conservatives within his own party — many of whom signaled they don’t trust McCarthy — marks a historical rarity as well as a personal humiliation for McCarthy on the same day that Republicans take control of the House. A multi-ballot speaker vote hasn’t occurred since 1923, when it took nine ballots for Frederick Gillett of Massachusetts to be elected.
“There’s times we’re going to have to argue with our own members, if they’re looking at for only positions for themselves, not for the country,” McCarthy told reporters after the meeting.
Some of his most fervent opponents, including Representatives Matt Gaetz of Florida and Bob Good of Virginia, have indicated there’s nothing McCarthy can do to get their votes. McCarthy said Gaetz told him he didn’t care if the result was Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries gets elected speaker.
The GOP animosity seems to be as personal as it is political. Alabama Republican Representative Mike Rogers threatened to strip McCarthy’s opponents from committee assignments — something Gaetz shrugged off.
“Our position is that if Kevin McCarthy is the speaker of the House, and we don’t have an ability to ensure that there is an oomph behind the agenda, and energy behind our oversight, that the committee assignments don’t mean that much anyway,” Gaetz said. “I’m not here to participate in some puppet show.”
The House will continue voting until a speaker is selected. It cannot conduct other business until that’s done.
The chaos in the speaker election raises questions about Republicans’ ability to govern amid internal struggles over the direction of the GOP between swing-district moderates and conservatives who have taken up the populist agenda of former President Donald Trump.
Representative Nancy Mace, who supports McCarthy, said he received several standing ovations during the meeting. The South Carolina Republican expressed frustration with the House Freedom Caucus members who are leading the opposition.
“When asked point-blank what more they wanted, the House Freedom Caucus could not say what more they wanted,” Mace said. “They are holding our agenda hostage.”
Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry of Pennsylvania made clear Tuesday he would not support McCarthy after weeks of negotiations.
“Every single American agrees that Washington is broken,” Perry said. “Interestingly enough, over the 14 years that he’s been in leadership, he’s done almost virtually nothing to change it.”
McCarthy, 57, who has been backed by Trump, sought to win over some of his detractors by making several concessions to conservative demands in a slate of proposed administrative House rules floated over the weekend. Those included making it easier for a small group of lawmakers to call for the speaker’s ouster and a proposal for more ideological diversity on committees. But nine GOP members sent a letter in response, saying that McCarthy’s plan didn’t go far enough.
“This isn’t anything about helping the country,” Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, a McCarthy supporter, said. “They just don’t like Kevin McCarthy.”
McCarthy’s troubles are further complicated by the political sideshow involving newly elected Representative George Santos, the New York Republican who has admitted he made up much of his resume, including that he graduated from college and worked for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup.
Santos’s fabrications only became public after he was elected in November. Federal and local officials have since opened investigations into the discrepancies. McCarthy has so far been silent about whether he plans to discipline Santos, despite other Republicans calling for action against him. With such a slight margin, McCarthy can’t afford to lose Santos’s vote for speaker.
The speaker’s vote will occur after the members arrive on the House floor at noon and before they are sworn-in for the new Congress. In all, 434 members are expected to vote Tuesday, 222 Republicans and 212 Democrats. One seat is vacant after the death of Representative Donald McEachin, a Virginia Democrat, in late November.
The speaker voting will be held by public roll-call and a simple majority of more than 50% of all votes cast from both parties is required to win.
It’s unclear who would have support among enough Republicans to beat McCarthy in a multi-ballot deadlock. No. 2 House Republican Steve Scalise has been discussed privately by some members as a potential fall-back, as has Republican Representative Patrick McHenry. Both appeared Tuesday to be standing behind McCarthy.
The lawmakers aren’t limited to voting for House members, but no other names have been floated as serious options. Former Representative Justin Amash, a libertarian who left the Republican party in 2019 and didn’t seek reelection in 2020, offered himself up for the job in a blistering critique of McCarthy’s leadership.
“All evidence suggests that McCarthy, if elected speaker, will be singularly focused on doing whatever it takes to remain speaker,” Amash, a founding member of the Freedom Caucus, tweeted. “He’s motivated by power, not principles. A person with this mindset — that the end justifies the means — will, by definition, put the process last.”
The tight margins McCarthy faces foreshadow a challenge that will dog Republicans for the next two years. The new rules proposal would also eliminate the ability for House members to vote by proxy, an option that was introduced during the pandemic. This means that Republicans will need to keep close track of all of their members because a couple of absences could mean they don’t have enough “yes” votes to pass legislation.
–With assistance from Laura Davison, Laura Litvan and Jarrell Dillard.
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