Kevin McCarthy elected speaker of the House on the 15th ballot, most since before the Civil War

Finally!

At long last, a battle for House speaker not seen since the mid-19th century ended early Saturday morning when Rep. Kevin McCarthy peeled off enough Republican holdouts on the 15th ballot to end the four-day marathon contest.

McCarthy, a California Republican, took hold of the gavel after appeasing members of the House Freedom Caucus with promises to cap spending at 2022 levels, allow any one member to call for a vote to oust him, and expand the House Rules Committee to include more members of the Freedom Caucus, among other concessions. 

“That was easy, huh?” McCarthy joked to House members in his first speech as speaker. “I never thought we’d get up here.”

Friday’s late night voting began after the House reconvened at 10 p.m. Hours earlier, McCarthy failed the first two speakership votes of the day – the 12th and 13th ballots of the week.

He was also dealt a stunning defeat, by one vote, on the 14th ballot in a roll call filled with high drama. It was his best performance since voting began on Tuesday. 

McCarthy finally won the 15th ballot with 216 votes. Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries placed second with 212 votes from the entire Democratic caucus, which was unified on all ballots cast this week. 

CNN reported on Friday that McCarthy and his allies had been working during the break between sessions to convince holdouts to vote “present” instead of for another candidate, in order for the threshold of votes needed for McCarthy to become speaker to drop. 

McCarthy flipped 15 previous GOP holdout votes following the 13th ballot, leaving Andy Biggs of Arizona, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Eli Crane of Arizona, Bob Good of Virginia, and Matt Rosendale of Montana as the remaining GOP opposition to his speakership. 

On the 15th ballot Friday night, Boebert, Gaetz, Biggs, Good, Rosendale, and Crane stopped voting for opposition candidates and helped hand McCarthy the speaker’s gavel.

Boebert voted “present” on the 14th and 15th ballots. Gaetz, who skipped his turn in the roll call on the 14th ballot and waited until the end to cast his own present vote, also voted present on the 15th.

Biggs, Crane, Good, and Rosendale remained in the anti-McCarthy camp after the 14th ballot, with Crane and Rosendale voting for Biggs, and Good and Biggs voting for Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), but they all switched to present votes on the 15th try.

Before the House reconvened, Gaetz told Fox News that he was “running out of things to ask for” from McCarthy.

Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), who nominated McCarthy on the 14th ballot, could be seen pleading with Gaetz after the roll call, trying in vain to get him to change his vote.

At one point, Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama lunged at Gaetz during the House floor negotiations and had to be restrained by Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina.

McHenry said Friday night that McCarthy has “grown as a leader” during this week’s turmoil.

“He’s relentless. The man does not quit,” McHenry said, adding that McCarthy led the Republicans back to the majority in the House and is the “right person to lead us over the coming two years.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell congratulated McCarthy on his early Saturday morning victory. 

“Congratulations to Speaker McCarthy and the Republican House majority. Senate Republicans look forward to working together to check and balance Washington Democrats, bring oversight to this reckless Administration, fight the far left’s radical policies, and defend America,” McConnell wrote in a tweet.

Former President Donald Trump, who backed McCarthy for speaker of the House and was reportedly on the phone with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) during the 14th vote, also offered his felicitations to the Bakersfield representative and the GOP.

“The ‘Speaker’ selection process, as crazy as it may seem, has made it all much bigger and more important than if done the more conventional way. Congratulations to Kevin McCarthy and our GREAT Republican Party!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

The White House also released a statement from President Biden on McCarthy’s win.
 
“Jill and I congratulate Kevin McCarthy on his election as Speaker of the House,” the statement from Biden read.

He went on to say that he is “prepared to work with Republicans” in the new Congress.
 
“The American people expect their leaders to govern in a way that puts their needs above all else, and that is what we need to do now,” the 80-year-old commander in chief continued. “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.  Now that the leadership of the House of Representatives has been decided it is time for that process to begin.”

After Hakeem Jeffries introduced McCarthy as House speaker, the California Republican spoke on the end of the weeklong ordeal and the future business of the House. 

McCarthy warned Democratic minority leader Jeffries that “Two years ago I got 100% of the vote from my conference.”

“It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,” said McCarthy, remembering one of his father’s favorite sayings. “And now we need to finish strong for the American people.”

McCarthy said that the new GOP House will be a crucial “check” on the Biden administration, and he vowed to stop wasteful spending, the rise in the national debt, and the rise in prices at the pump and grocery store.

“Our system is built on checks and balances. It’s time for us to be a check and provide some balance to the President’s policies,” said McCarthy.

He said the very first bill Congress will take up will be to “repeal the funding for 87,000 new IRS agents” and that one of the first hearings will be on the “crisis” on the southern border.

He also announced the reopening of the Capitol complex to the public. It had been closed since the start of the COVID pandemic.

“This chamber is now fully open for all Americans to visit,” said McCarthy.

McCarthy closed by saying that he hopes it’s clear to all new and old members that he will “never give up.”

McCarthy was sworn in as House speaker by the dean of the House, Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), and the speaker proceeded to swear-in the rest of the members of the 118th Congress en masse.

The House was expected to move quickly to approve a rules package after members are sworn in. The rules package is a key component to the deal struck between McCarthy and the faction of Republicans against his speakership. 

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However, reports emerged after midnight that the rules vote would not take place tonight and be pushed back until Monday. And at about 1:55 a.m. Saturday, the House voted to adjourn for the weekend.

The House GOP leader was confident coming into Friday night’s vote that he would prevail. 

“We’ll come back tonight, and I believe at that time, we’ll have the votes to finish this once and for all,” McCarthy told reporters before the members reconvened.

McCarthy confirmed Friday that he was “willing” to change the House’s rules to allow a single member to make a so-called “motion to vacate,” which would trigger a vote on removing the speaker.

Other accommodations McCarthy reportedly made to sway Freedom Caucus members included mandating 72 hours between the posting of bills and votes on them, and trying for a constitutional amendment that would impose term limits on members of the House and Senate.

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