Kevin McCarthy to continue bid to become House of Representatives speaker

Kevin McCarthy (Alex Brandon/AP)

House Republicans will open the second day of the new Congress much like the first — with leader Kevin McCarthy trying to become House speaker despite losing in multiple rounds of voting that threw the new party’s majority into chaos.

It was the first time in 100 years that a nominee for House speaker could not take the gavel on the first vote, but Mr McCarthy appeared undeterred.

Instead, he vowed to fight to the finish, encouraged, he said, by former President Donald Trump to end the disarray and pull the Republican Party together.

Former president Donald Trump (Lynne Sladky/AP)

Early on Wednesday, Mr Trump publicly urged Republicans to vote for McCarthy: “Close the deal, take the victory,” he wrote on his social media site.

He added: “Republicans, do not turn a great triumph into a giant and embarrassing defeat.”

The House will try again on Wednesday after Tuesday’s stalemate essentially forced all other business to a standstill, waiting on Republicans to elect a speaker.

“Today, is that the day I wanted to have? No,” Mr McCarthy told reporters late Tuesday at the Capitol after a series of closed-door meetings.

Asked if he would drop out, Mr McCarthy said, “It’s not going to happen.”

The tumultuous start to the new Congress pointed to difficulties ahead with Republicans now in control of the House.

Tensions flared among the new House majority as their campaign promises stalled out. Without a speaker, the House cannot fully form — swearing in its members, naming its committee chairmen, engaging in floor proceedings and launching investigations of the Biden administration.

Lawmakers’ families had waited around, as what is normally a festive day descended into chaos, with children playing in the aisles or squirming in parents’ arms.

But it was not at all clear how the embattled GOP leader could rebound to win over right-flank conservatives who reject his leadership.

It typically takes a majority of the House to become speaker, 218 votes — though the threshold can drop if members are absent or merely vote present, a strategy Mr McCarthy appeared to be considering.

Mr McCarthy won no more than 203 votes in three rounds of voting, losing as many as 20 Republicans from his slim 222-seat majority.

Not since 1923 has a speaker’s election gone to multiple ballots, and the longest and most gruelling fight for the gavel started in late 1855 and dragged out for two months, with 133 ballots, during debates over slavery in the run-up to the Civil War.

“Kevin McCarthy is not going to be a speaker,” declared Republican Bob Good, one of the holdouts.

A new generation of conservative Republicans, many aligned with Mr Trump’s Make America Great Again agenda, want to upend business as usual in Washington, and were committed to stopping Mr McCarthy’s rise without concessions to their priorities.

President Joe Biden later said House Republicans’ inability to unify behind a speaker candidate is “not a good look” for the country.

Speaking at the White House before traveling to Kentucky for an event to highlight last year’s bipartisan infrastructure law with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Mr Biden said of Republicans: “I hope they get their act together.”

He declined to say whether he had any choice for the speaker job, adding “I have no idea” who will prevail.