Kevin McCarthy says he has votes to become US House Speaker

Kevin McCarthy says he has enough support to become Speaker of the US House of Representatives.

Even though Republicans hold a majority of seats in the lower chamber of Congress, the front-runner has lost 13 rounds of votes.

Some of the holdouts changed their votes on Friday to support him.

The House is back in session on Friday.

The speaker is in charge of legislative business. The US vice-president is in line to become the next president.

Mr McCarthy told reporters after the 13th vote that he would have the votes.

Mr McCarthy was able to convince 14 Republican holdouts to cast their votes for him after 12 rounds of voting. The 15th rebel voted for the 13th ballot.

The California congressman was three votes short of the number of votes he needed to become the next Speaker of the House.

Members of the House Freedom Caucus argue that Mr McCarthy isn't conservative enough to lead them as they work to stymies the agenda of Democratic President Joe Biden.

After voting against Mr McCarthy 11 times, ScottPerry said he was changing his mind and supporting him.

He said that they were at a turning point.

The two Republicans who missed votes were going to vote for Mr McCarthy.

A seat on the influential rules committee, which sets the terms for debate in the chamber, is one of the concessions Mr McCarthy has made to the rebels.

He agreed to lower the threshold for triggering a vote to oust the Speaker to only one House member, which could cause the Republican coalition to break again even after Mr McCarthy's victory.

Two years ago on Capitol Hill, Mr Biden's certification as president was disrupted by a group of Trump supporters.

The second highest ranking Democrat in the chamber said that the same extremists were holding the House Republicans in check.

New York's Hakeem Jeffries is the first black person to lead a party in Congress.

He wouldn't have a chance of getting the simple majority of votes needed to become Speaker if he tried.

On Friday, Mr McCarthy's vote count surpassed that of Mr Jeffries.

In the build up to the American Civil War, the lower chamber of Congress has voted many times to pick a speaker. It took 44 votes.

The Republicans won the House by a less than expected margin. The Senate was held by Democrats.