After days of negotiations and multiple rounds of voting, Kevin McCarthy has finally been elected as the speaker of the US House of Representatives.
The election took place on Saturday morning, following weeks of wrangling among Republican members of the House.
McCarthy’s bid for the speakership had been blocked by a group of far-right legislators within his own party, who refused to support him.
In order to secure their backing, McCarthy was forced to make concessions to their demands.
Despite this, the election was still extremely close, with McCarthy winning by a razor-thin margin of just 216 votes to Hakeem Jeffries’ 212. Jeffries, the Democratic leader in the House, is the first black person to lead a party in US Congress.
The road to the speakership was a long and difficult one for McCarthy. In the first three rounds of voting on Tuesday, he failed to secure the necessary support.
The contest then became bogged down in eight further rounds of stalemate on Wednesday and Thursday, as McCarthy’s followership began to wane.
He received 201 votes in the first two rounds on Thursday, but this number dropped to 200 in subsequent votes.
One particularly interesting development during the voting process was the fact that Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican and one of McCarthy’s detractors, voted for former President Donald Trump to be the speaker in one round of voting on Thursday.
US law does not require the speaker to be a member of the House, so Gaetz’s vote was technically valid.
However, it is highly unlikely that Trump, who is no longer in office, would have been able to secure the position.
Throughout the voting process, the Democrats consistently supported Jeffries as their party leader in the House.
However, their efforts were ultimately unsuccessful, and McCarthy was able to secure the speakership with the backing of the far-right Republicans.
The impasse was the longest since 1859, when the US House of Representatives failed to choose a speaker after 44 ballots.
During the 14th round of voting on Friday night, Gaetz withheld his vote, leading to a confrontation with his fellow Republican, Mike Rogers.
Overall, the election of Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the US House of Representatives was a closely contested and hard-fought battle.
Despite facing opposition from within his own party, McCarthy was able to secure the necessary support and take on the role of one of the most powerful figures in American politics.
