Status: 01/04/2023 7:32 p.m
Republican candidate McCarthy also failed in the fourth ballot for the presidency of the US House of Representatives. Again there were dissenting voices from within their own ranks.
After several unsuccessful rounds of voting for the most powerful post in the US Parliament, the House of Representatives has started a new attempt to determine a chairman – but this did not produce any results either.
In the fourth ballot, Republican Kevin McCarthy received only 201 votes – instead of the required 218. Again 20 Republicans had voted for another candidate – this time for Byron Donalds, who had been nominated by Republican Chip Roy.
McCarthy’s opponents had already presented alternative candidates yesterday – and thus thwarted his election as speaker of the House of Representatives three times. Donalds received a single vote in the first ballot on Tuesday – in the second and third ballots, McCarthy’s critics rallied behind Republican Jim Jordan, who protested he had no interest in the post.
McCarthy not conservative enough for many
McCarthy failed yesterday mainly because of resistance from the ultra-conservative members of his own party. 19 dissenters from his own ranks, more than expected, refused to vote for him in the first and second ballot. In the third ballot, the number of dissenting votes rose to 20. Many MPs from former President Donald Trump’s camp reject McCarthy as too moderate.
The first session of the newly elected Congress was a miserable start for the Republicans, who had just won a majority in the chamber in the midterm elections in November. Last resort: adjournment of the session, for which the deputies finally voted in the early evening. Today the search for a new “speaker” continues.
Republicans now control the US House of Representatives with 222 seats. 218 votes are required for a majority in the election of the “speaker”.
Trump supports McCarthy
McCarthy received support in the struggle for the presidency of the House of Representatives from ex-President Donald Trump today. “Now is the time for all of our great Republicans to vote for Kevin, close the deal, take the win,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social media platform.
“Don’t turn a great triumph into a huge and embarrassing defeat. It’s time to celebrate, you deserve it. Kevin McCarthy will do a good job and maybe even a great job – just wait and see,” Trump wrote.
Election defeat number four: Again no majority for Kevin McCarthy
Katrin Brand, ARD Washington, January 4, 2023 7:54 p.m