It’s Thursday afternoon and Kevin McCarthy has lost 10 straight votes for House Speaker.
The House is now moving to the 11th vote and 4th vote of the day.
The winning Republican can only afford to lose four votes! He must reach 218 votes to win the Speakership. And the GOP holds a narrow 222 to 212 majority in the chamber.
McCarthy has not reached the 218 threshold after three days of voting.
This was despite the fact that President Trump endorsed Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday morning and urged Republicans to vote for McCarthy.
The actions of these principled conservatives who refuse to support Kevin McCarthy is infuriating to party insiders, the Uniparty, lobbyists, and GOP elites.
This hasn’t happened since 1859.
*HOUSE SPEAKER FIGHT GOES TO 10TH VOTE, MOST SINCE PRE-CIVIL WAR
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) January 5, 2023
According to the Washington Post, “the last time a speaker election took more than one ballot was in 1923, when Speaker Frederick Gillett (R-Mass.) was reelected on the ninth ballot.”
“But the longest speaker vote began on Dec. 3, 1855, when the 34th Congress convened,” the outlet added.
More from House.gov:
At the conclusion of the longest and most contentious Speaker election in House history, the House elected Representative Nathaniel Banks of Massachusetts as its presiding officer for the 34th Congress (1855–1857). Sectional conflict over slavery and a rising anti-immigrant mood in the nation contributed to a poisoned and deteriorating political climate.
As a sign of the factionalism then existing in the House, more than 21 individuals initially vied for the Speaker’s post when the Members first gathered in December, 1855. After two months and 133 ballots, the House finally chose Representative Banks by a vote of 103 to 100 over Representative William Aiken of South Carolina. Banks, a member of both the nativist American (or “Know-Nothing”) Party and the Free Soil Party, served a term as Speaker before Democrats won control of the chamber in the 35th Congress (1857–1859). Banks retired from the House to serve as governor of Massachusetts.
Here’s a photo of several GOP holdouts.
The GOP holdouts.
