The House adjourned Tuesday without picking a new speaker as Rep. Kevin McCarthy failed to win a majority on three ballots – only the eighth time in history a speaker hadn’t been chosen after three ballots.
After the second ballot, McCarthy insisted to reporters that the party is “unified.”
“This isn’t about me,” McCarthy said. “This is about the conference now because the members who are holding out … they want something for their personal selves.”
But McCarthy had lost another Republican on the third round: Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, who had pledged to support McCarthy on the first two ballots but not after that — suggesting that he could lose more as the vote could move into further ballots.
Tuesday’s vote marked the first time in 100 years that the House speaker vote went to multiple ballots.
Given Republicans’ razor-thin majority in the House, McCarthy could only afford to lose four Republican votes. In losing 20 Republican votes, McCarthy not only fell short of the majority needed, he also came up behind Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, who received all the Democratic votes.
Outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who gaveled in the session in her last act as speaker, told reporters after the second round that she had hoped Republicans would unite since they are in the majority, but “that’s their problem.”
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