McCarthy secures speaker’s gavel
Overcomes holdouts, tensions within GOP in historic 15th ballot
WASHINGTON — Republican Kevin McCarthy was elected House speaker on a historic post-midnight 15th ballot early Saturday, overcoming holdouts from his own ranks and floor tensions that boiled over after a chaotic week that tested the new GOP majority’s ability to govern.
“My father always told me, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,” McCarthy told cheering fellow Republicans.
Eager to confront President Joe Biden and the Democrats, he promised subpoenas and investigations. “Now the hard work begins,” the California Republican declared. He credited former President Donald Trump for standing with him and for making late calls “helping get those final votes.”
Republicans roared in celebration when his victory was announced, chanting “USA! USA!”
With McCarthy elected, he immediately turned to swearing in the 434 members of the House to officially seat the 118th Congress. Republicans announced that they would wait until Monday to consider a package of rules for the chamber, which is expected to enshrine many of the compromises McCarthy made to win his post.
After four days of grueling ballots, McCarthy flipped more than a dozen conservative holdouts to become
supporters, including the chairman of the chamber’s Freedom Caucus.
He fell one vote short on the 14th ballot, and the chamber became raucous and unruly.
McCarthy strode to the back of the chamber to confront Matt Gaetz of Florida, sitting with Lauren Boebert of Colorado and other Republican holdouts. Fingers were pointed, words exchanged and violence apparently just averted.
At one point, Republican Mike Rogers of Alabama, shouting, approached Gaetz before another Republican, Richard Hudson of North Carolina, physically pulled him back.
“Stay civil!” someone shouted.
Order restored, the Republicans fell in line to give McCarthy the post he had fought so hard to gain — House speaker, second in the line of succession to the presidency. The tally on the 15th ballot was 216-212 with Democrats voting for leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, and six Republican holdouts to McCarthy simply voting present.
The showdown that stymied the new Congress came against the backdrop of the second anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, which shook the country when a mob of Trump’s supporters tried to stop Congress from certifying the Republican’s 2020 election defeat to Biden.
Contours of a deal with conservative holdouts who had been blocking McCarthy’s rise had emerged the night before, and took hold after four dismal days and 14 failed votes in an intraparty standoff unseen in modern times.
One significant former holdout — Republican Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, chairman of the conservative Freedom Caucus, who had been a leader of Trump’s efforts to challenge the 2020 election — tweeted after his switched vote for McCarthy, “We’re at a turning point.”
Electing a speaker is normally an easy, joyous task for a party that has just won majority control. But not this time: About 200 Republicans were stymied by 20 far-right colleagues who said McCarthy was not conservative enough. Only on the 12th ballot Friday afternoon did McCarthy start making gains, flipping their votes to support.
After the 13th ballot, the House adjourned until late Friday night, giving time for last-minute negotiations and allowing two absent Republican colleagues to return to Washington: Reps. Ken Buck of Colorado and Wesley Hunt of Texas, who went home to be with his wife after her hospitalization for complications in the premature birth of their son earlier in the week.
The disorganized start to the new Congress pointed to difficulties ahead with the GOP now in control of the House, much the way that some past Republican speakers, including John Boehner, had trouble leading a rebellious right flank. The result was government shutdowns, standoffs and Boehner’s early retirement when conservatives threatened to oust him.
The agreement McCarthy presented to the holdouts and others centers around rules changes they have been seeking for months. Those changes would shrink the power of the speaker’s office and give rank-and-file lawmakers more influence in drafting and passing legislation.
At the core of the emerging deal was the reinstatement of a House rule that would allow a single lawmaker to make a motion to “vacate the chair,” essentially calling a vote to oust the speaker. McCarthy had resisted allowing a return to the long-standing rule that former Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California had done away with, because it had been held over the head of Boehner.
Other wins for the holdouts include provisions in the proposed deal to expand the number of seats available on the House Rules Committee and to mandate 72 hours for bills to be posted before votes.