Kevin McCarthy becomes US House speaker after historic 15 rounds of voting: Here's what happened

After four contentious days, 15 rounds of voting, and the fifth longest contest in history, the United States House of Representatives has finally chosen California Republican, Kevin McCarthy as the next speaker of the Congress as it convenes for its 118th session.

The 15th round vote took place between late Friday and early Saturday (January 7) after what can only be described as days of drama and a series of events on Capitol Hill as McCarthy scrambled to secure enough votes for the gavel following painstaking negotiations. The Republican lawmaker from California won after the longest election bid for the 435-member chamber speaker in 164 years.

McCarthy’s journey to the gavel

The deadlock began on January 3 when the Congress convened for the new session and the voting for the next House speaker, typically the first order of business, commenced. Notably, even weeks prior to the first round of voting, McCarthy’s bid to take the top post in the chamber was uncertain at best.

After the midterm elections, last year, the Republicans took over the House with a narrow majority of 222-213 from the Democrats and the outgoing speaker Nancy Pelosi. Subsequently, in the same month after a closed-door meeting of the GOP conference, McCarthy emerged as the leader of the House for his party. However, the members are not obligated to vote for the party’s chosen candidate.

In fact, while the person typically is a member of the House, it is not required. It opens the speaker's candidacy to a range of lawmakers including Senators, former president Donald Trump and incumbent president Joe Biden, though none of them has won a majority yet. Once the chamber had the minimum number of members present to proceed or quorum, the Democrats nominated their leader Hakeem Jeffries for the speaker while the Republicans nominated Kevin McCarthy.

What followed can only be described as chaos, as McCarthy scrambled to garner the majority, which is typically at least 218 votes. However, he was unable to do so, making it the first time in a century that the House did not elect its speaker after one round of voting. This successfully halted major functions in Washington as not only does the lawmaker preside over the lower chamber of Congress they would also be next in line for the presidency.

McCarthy’s bid for the speakership faced a range of hurdles but predominantly it was a small group of hardliners from his own party. While this situation is not necessarily unique it proved to be quite a roadblock for the California Republican since he was unable to secure a majority even after multiple rounds of voting.

What happened on late Friday and early Saturday?

Kevin McCarthy became the House speaker after 15 rounds of voting and tense negotiations for days with a small but critical group of lawmakers of the Republican party who demanded concessions that essentially resulted in diluting his power as the speaker. After the 14th round of voting the 57-year-old Californian lawmaker who seemed confident earlier faced humiliation after Representative Matt Gaetz withheld his vote.

In the 14th of voting, McCarthy managed to garner, 216 votes while the Democratic candidate for speaker Jeffries received 212. Meanwhile, Republican Andy Biggs received support from 2 representatives, as did Republican Jim Jordan. However, with six Republicans choosing another candidate and the other six withholding their vote McCarthy was one vote away from victory.

After an hour-long recess lawmakers returned for a 15th round of voting marking the first time in over a century and a half in US history. Subsequently, the decision was up to Florida lawmaker, Gaetz, who had initially walked out of the chamber when his name was first called during the 14th round and voted “present” for the 15th round.

However, Gaetz withheld his vote in the previous round which prompted a scuffle where a clip shows several lawmakers approaching the Florida representative on the House floor after McCarthy spoke to him and the situation escalated to a point where a Republican Mike Rogers had to be physically pulled away from nearly lunging at Gaetz.

Amid a series of discussions and negotiations on the floor between Republican lawmakers on the House floor, Representative Andy Biggs (Arizona), Representative Elijah Crane (Arizona) and Representative Bob Good (Virginia) changed their votes to “present” ultimately lowering the threshold which McCarthy needed to win with the same amount of votes received.

Who was opposing him?

Here are the 20 Republican lawmakers that opposed McCarthy’s bid for the gavel as of Thursday, prior to the negotiations with the California Republican and his allies, after which some voted “present” and some switched their votes mostly around the 11th and 12th ballot conducted on Friday.

According to a report by CBS, the Republican lawmakers were, Andy Biggs (Arizona), Dan Bishop (North Carolina), Lauren Boebert (Colorado), Representative-elect Josh Brecheen (Oklahoma), Michael Cloud (Texas), Andrew Clyde (Georgia), Representative-elect Eli Crane (Arizona), Byron Donalds (Florida), Matt Gaetz (Florida), Bob Good (Virginia), Paul Gosar (Arizona), Andy Harris (Maryland), Representative-elect Anna Paulina Luna (Florida), Mary Miller (Illinois), Ralph Norman (South Carolina), Andy Ogles (Tennessee), Scott Perry (Pennsylvania), Matt Rosendale (Montana), Chip Roy (Texas), and Keith Self (Texas).

What are some of the concessions made?

In a dramatic shift after several rounds of voting, McCarthy and his allies managed to flip at least a dozen votes before the 14th round of voting on Friday. According to a report by CNN, one of the most significant ones includes a provision that any member can call for a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair, which would make it easier to trigger what is essentially a no-confidence vote for the speaker.

Additionally, the report also spoke about provisions about pairing the efforts to raise the nation’s debt ceiling with spending cuts. This comes after Republicans have repeatedly shut down much of the government and pushed the world’s largest borrowers to the brink of default in efforts to extract steep spending cuts.

However, they have not been able to do so as Democrats in the Senate and the White House have long opposed spending cuts. Another provision includes moving 12 appropriations bills individually rather than one “omnibus” year-end spending package which rolls everything into one bill which conservatives have railed against for a few years now as they believe it evades oversight, said a report by CNN.

McCarthy has also reportedly agreed to cap spending for the upcoming fiscal year at 2022’s levels which would amount to a significant cut in spending affecting defence and domestic programmes amid high inflation and population growth in the US. The incumbent speaker has agreed to restore the Holman rule, which could lead to salary cuts for government officials and also said that he would create an investigative committee to probe the “weaponization” of the federal government, said a report by CNN.

These concessions along with others effectively lower McCarthy’s power as the US House speaker which Senate Majority Leader and Democrat Chuck Schumer, warned would “will cause a government shutdown or a default with devastating consequences to our country.” In a statement after McCarthy’s win, Schummer said, “Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s dream job could turn into a nightmare for the American people…To get the votes, he surrendered to demands of a fringe element of the Republican party.”

What happened in the House after McCarthy won?

After the results were announced the Republican conference was seen clapping and hugging McCarthy as he passed them on the House floor who subsequently expressed relief and said, “I’m glad it’s over”. The Republican lawmaker received the gavel at 1:00 am (local time) and said, “I never thought we'd get up here.” The Republican lawmaker was then sworn into office along with other members of Congress marking the end of the weeks of deadlock.

In his speech, he also spoke about holding the government accountable, “It's time for us to be a check and provide some balance to the president’s policies”, referring to the incumbent President Joe Biden and his administration. He added, “We commit to stop wasteful Washington spending, to lower the price of groceries, gas, cars, housing, and stop the rising national debt.”

“We'll also address America's long-term challenges, the debt and the rise of the Chinese communist party,” said McCarthy and went on to speak about China and how the new House of Representatives wants the US to win against Beijing in the economic competition.

“As for the Chinese communist party, we will create a bipartisan select committee on China to investigate how to bring back the hundreds of thousands of jobs that went to China, and then we will win this economic competition,” said the new House speaker. In his first speech after becoming the speaker, addressing his colleagues he said, “Now the hard work begins.”

Meanwhile, Leader of House Minority and Democrat Hakeem Jeffries made history by becoming the first black lawmaker to lead a party in Congress. The Democrat from New York will take over as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is stepping down. He was selected by the Democratic caucus after the midterm elections in November. Notably, the 52-year-old is also the first leader of the House Democrats to be born after the end of World War II.

He also went on to acknowledge his predecessor and said, “Without question in my mind, Speaker Emerita Pelosi will go down in history as the greatest speaker of all time…Throughout her time in Congress, she's been a legendary legislator, a fabulous facilitator and a no-nonsense negotiator.” The House is now adjourned until 5:00 pm (local time) Monday.

Biden and Trump congratulate the new House speaker

In a statement after the vote, the US president congratulated the new speaker and said, “Jill and I congratulate Kevin McCarthy on his election as Speaker of the House. As I said after the midterms, I am prepared to work with Republicans when I can and voters made clear that they expect Republicans to be prepared to work with me as well.”

(With inputs from agencies)

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