In the seventh and final round of voting on Thursday, Kevin McCarthy failed to win the speakership, but he was able to hold on to his first six votes after agreeing to a number of conservative demands.
Kevin McCarthy is going to be the speaker of the house. Scott Applewhite is pictured
The vote tally for the first two days of the election was changed by Rep. Matt Gaetz who voted for Donald Trump as speaker.
Gaetz broke with the group of five "Never Kevin" GOP members who agreed to vote as a bloc in the speaker election and voted for Donalds.
A total of 19 Republicans voted for Donalds on Thursday, with one member voting present.
The Democrats voted for Jeffries.
After six rounds of voting, the GOP failed to coalesce behind a single candidate and the House convened for a seventh round. McCarthy received over 200 votes in his favor, 20 against him and one member voting present. He will have to lose four votes in order to get the leadership position in the House. The chaos has exposed the deep divisions within the party and foretold what could be a difficult two years in the House.
McCarthy agreed to a number of concessions demanded by holdouts in exchange for votes, including lowering the vote threshold for the Republican conference to begin the process for expelling the speaker to a single member, down from the majority currently required. McCarthy agreed to install more hard-right House Freedom Caucus members on the rules committee, where they could make major changes to the budget approval process, including requiring individual votes on all 12 appropriations bills. McCarthy is said to have agreed to allow a separate approval process for the Earmarks. According to some of the holdouts, an agreement has yet to be reached, and that the deal was leaked to the press. It is more difficult to trust when confidences are betrayed. He said he wouldn't yield to the status quo.
Some Republicans are growing fatigued with the right-wing resistance and have publicly expressed their frustration in recent days.
We will stay here, we are stuck at a stalemate. "We will not be able to fight the conservative fights until we find a way to come together," James said as he nominated McCarthy.
Dan Bishop fired back at Cori Bush after she said the GOP was using Donalds as a prop. As he nominated Donalds for speaker during the seventh round, Bishop called Bush a prop and said he wouldn't have done it if he were a prop. Bishop told Roll Call on Wednesday that he would resign if the conference did not agree to improvements that would restore the power of rank and file members.
McCarthy agrees to some concessions in his quest to become speaker, but they may not be enough.
Kevin McCarthy lost the sixth round of votes in the chaotic speaker election.
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