WASHINGTON — In a second consecutive day of voting, House Republicans on Wednesday failed again to elect a speaker despite holding a majority of seats as a group of far-right lawmakers continued to oppose the candidate chosen by most of their GOP colleagues.
Every House Republican from Washington, Idaho and Oregon has supported Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, who was chosen by a majority of the GOP conference in a closed-door meeting in November. But Rep. Matt Rosendale of Montana and 19 other Republicans have opposed McCarthy, more than enough to deny him the majority needed to become speaker.
Unlike in the Senate, an outright majority of the House’s 435 voting members must choose a speaker before the chamber can begin its legislative work in a new session of Congress. With 222 members, Republicans can’t afford to lose more than four votes.
While the holdouts have demanded concessions from McCarthy that would give rank-and-file members more leverage, they say their main gripe is a lack of trust in the California lawmaker who has served as House Republican leader since 2019.
“He hasn’t been forthright,” Rosendale said of McCarthy in an interview Wednesday on Newsmax. “If you don’t trust the person you’re negotiating with, it makes it very, very difficult to enter into a good negotiation, a good-faith negotiation.”
More than 90% of House Republicans have supported McCarthy in six rounds of voting, including Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Spokane; Russ Fulcher, who represents North Idaho; Dan Newhouse of Central Washington; Cliff Bentz of Eastern Oregon; and Mike Simpson of Idaho Falls.
In a tweet Wednesday evening, Simpson implored his fellow Republicans to unite to elect a speaker.
“A southern border in crisis, rampant inflation, reckless government spending, and energy independence. These are issues many of my constituents care about — issues we can’t work on without a GOP Speaker,” Simpson wrote. “Let’s give America the solutions they asked for and stop the disruption.”
Since he entered Congress as a relative moderate in 2007, McCarthy has repeatedly shifted his position in an effort to curry favor with his party’s right flank, especially former President Donald Trump and his allies. Now, his GOP opponents are citing that very pattern to explain their lack of faith in his leadership.
In perhaps his most dramatic reversal, a week after Trump supporters besieged the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, McCarthy said the then-president “bears responsibility” for what happened and expressed support for censuring Trump and creating a bipartisan commission to investigate the attack.
Yet before that month was over, the man Trump took to calling “my Kevin” visited the former president at his Florida resort, posing for a photo and saying in a statement, “A united conservative movement will strengthen the bonds of our citizens and uphold the freedoms our country was founded on.”
Two years later, the conservative movement appears less than united at a moment many McCarthy allies expected to be his coronation. Despite Trump encouraging Republicans to “VOTE FOR KEVIN” in a post on his Truth Social website Wednesday morning, the 20 holdouts didn’t budge in three more votes.
After the sixth round of voting concluded Wednesday evening, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, one of the 20 GOP holdouts, told reporters who asked him about McCarthy, “I am ready to vote all night, all week, all month. And never for that person.”
If McCarthy or enough of his allies conclude he can’t win over the holdouts, Republicans could try to coalesce behind another candidate, such as Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 House Republican, but it isn’t clear that any GOP lawmaker enjoys broad enough support to be elected. The Semafor news website reported Tuesday that Rosendale has said he wouldn’t vote for anyone who’s been in Congress for more than 10 years, seemingly ruling out Scalise.
In a speech nominating McCarthy for the sixth time, Rep. Kat McCammack, R-Fla., appealed to Republicans by pointing out how much Democrats seemed to be enjoying the disarray.
“They want us divided. They want us to fight each other. That much has been made clear by the popcorn and blankets and alcohol that is coming over there.”
Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., had tweeted a photo of himself on his way to vote with a bag of popcorn, but it was unclear whom McCammack was accusing of drinking in the House chamber.
At least one Democrat could be heard asking the clerk to reprimand the Florida Republican for her words for violating the House’s rules of decorum, but since those rules need to be approved at the start of each Congress and that can only take place after a speaker is elected, no such rules applied.
All but four Republicans voted to adjourn Wednesday night, with no help from Democrats, who have consistently voted as a bloc for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the new Democratic minority leader. The House will reconvene Thursday. Voting will continue until a new speaker is chosen by a majority of voting members.
