House Republicans are at a crossroads as leader Kevin McCarthy has failed over and over again to become House speaker, but he remains determined to persuade enough right-flank holdouts to vote for him and end the stalemate.
McCarthy has vowed to fight to the finish for the speaker's job in a battle that had thrown the new majority into tumult for the first days of the new Congress.
The disorganized start to the new Congress pointed to difficulties ahead with Republicans 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: government shutdowns, standoffs and Boehner's early retirement.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told reporters that he is confident he will become Speaker of the House, before losing the first round of voting on Tuesday. “We may have a battle on the floor, but the battle is for the conference and the country, and that’s fine with me.” And a McCarthy-aligned campaign group, the Conservative Leadership Fund, offered another concession, saying it would no longer spend money on elections “in any open-seat primaries in safe Republican districts." The far-right lawmakers have complained that their preferred candidates for the House were being treated unfairly as the campaign fund put its resources elsewhere.
But those opposing McCarthy do not all have the same complaints, and he may never be able to win over some of them. Not since 1923 had a speaker’s election gone to multiple ballots. The longest fight for the gavel started in late 1855 and dragged on for two months, with 133 ballots, during debates over slavery in the run-up to the Civil War.
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