Republican Kevin McCarthy Narrowly Becomes Speaker of the House

A four-day, 15 round stalemate sees McCarthy emerge with the gavel, but not without controversial concessions to the Freedom Caucus

After a historic four-day showdown, California Republican Kevin McCarthy eked out just enough support to be sworn in as the House Speaker of the 118th Congress on Saturday, Jan. 7. As the presiding officer of the House, the Speaker maintains order, manages its proceedings and governs the administration of its business.

This was the first election in a century in which multiple ballots – 15 rounds – were needed to elect the House Speaker. According to Ballotpedia, this is only the 15th time in U.S. history and the first time in almost a century that speaker voting has gone beyond the first round.

Both Democrats and Republicans were looking to wrap up the election quickly. Without a House Speaker, lawmakers cannot be sworn into office and committee assignments and intelligence briefings cannot occur. 

The Process:

House Speakers are elected under two conditions: if the current speaker dies, resigns or is removed from their position, or if a new Congress is elected. With the 118th Congress coming into session, the seat was up for grabs.

Any member of Congress can nominate speakers by calling out the name of their choice from the floor. Before this, however, Republicans and Democrats hold informal votes amongst their members to choose their party leader for the January election. The Republican party selected Representative Kevin McCarthy and RepresentativeDemocrat Hakeem Jeffries was chosen to represent the Democrats following former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s November statement that she would not run in this election.

When the House is in quorum (at least 218 out of the 435 members are present), voting begins.Lawmakers have four options when voting. Members can select their party’s chosen candidate, nominate a new candidate, change their vote or vote “present,” meaning the lawmaker is abstaining from voting in that round.

A speaker is elected if they win the majority vote of all the lawmakers present, not the majority of the whole House. This distinction is especially important because the votes that constitute a majority change if lawmakers are absent or vote present. In a neck-and-neck race, even a handful of present votes could be the tipping point for one candidate to be declared the winner.

Between every round in which a speaker does not win a majority, the candidates can negotiate and strike deals to garner more votes.

Significant Rounds:

The fight for House Speaker spanned 15 rounds of voting until McCarthy was eventually elected. Here are some of the most consequential rounds from the election:

In the first round, Jeffries had all 212 Democratic votes and McCarthy had 203 Republican votes. Neither had surpassed the 218 vote minimum.

In the third round, only Jeffries, McCarthy and Republican Jim Jordan were left on the ballot as the race tightened.

However, in the fourth round, all 20 votes for Jordan were given to Republican Byron Donalds, removing Jordan from the race.

By the ninth round, Jeffries still had 212 votes, McCarthy had 200 votes, Jordan was back on the ballot with 17 votes and Republican Kevin Hern had 3 votes.

The twelfth round was the biggest flipper, with 13 votes changing. By this round, Jeffries was down to 211 votes, McCarthy was up to 213 votes, Jordan had 4 votes and Hern was still at 3 votes.

The fourteenth round had McCarthy losing by a small margin at 216 votes and Jeffries at 212 votes, with 4 Republicans voting against him.

On Jan. 7, in the fifteenth and final round of the election, McCarthy won the position of House Speaker with 216 votes after all four representatives who previously voted against him voted present.

Read the full details from each round on Ballotpedia.

The Future:

Such a divided and time-consuming election may have a ripple effect on future legislation and House decisions. The day before McCarthy’s win marked the two-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot. The win came just weeks after the House committee released its full report of the incident and recommended that Representative McCarthy be investigated for his refusal to comply with the investigation.

During negotiations, McCarthy offered many concessions to more conservative Republicans. The major ones included instating a rule that any one member can force a vote to replace the House Speaker and a requirement of 72 hours to review bills before they are put on the floor. Furthermore, debt limit increases will not occur without cuts in funding for programs like Social Security, Medicare and, potentially, defense spending.

NPR sums up the struggle well: “The impasse likely foreshadows the chaos expected during the next two years of divided government on Capitol Hill, where Republicans hold a very narrow majority and the conservative Freedom Caucus has shown its willingness to hold the rest of the Republican conference hostage to its demands.”

Many of McCarthy’s allies are apprehensive about the extent to which he was agreeing with far-right lawmakers, as he had previously marketed himself as a more moderate Republican. While McCarthy’s new position is a win for more centrist lawmakers, concerns about the power of a small group of conservatives is beginning to arise.