Republican Kevin McCarthy failed for the twelfth time in the historically protracted power struggle for the presidency of the US House of Representatives to secure the necessary majority of the votes. Although he was able to attract more opponents to his side, it was still not enough. His party colleague Mike Garcia had nominated the 57-year-old at the session of the parliamentary chamber on Friday.
The voting has now been going on for four days. McCarthy has failed so far because right-wing opponents refuse to support him. They are supporters of former President Donald Trump, who, however, supports McCarthy. This time, too, the rebels presented opposing candidates. Radical Rep. Matt Gaetz nominated Jim Jordan, who had previously been nominated ahead of opponents. You only become chairman of the House of Representatives if you get enough votes, said Gaetz. “So one has to wonder (…) if this is an exercise in vanity for someone who has done the count and is letting this institution go through something that is absolutely avoidable,” Gaetz said of McCarthy. Trump supporter Lauren Boebert nominated her colleague Kevin Hern.
The current vote for the top job is already one of the longest in US history. Not since the 19th century has it taken the members of the House of Representatives as many attempts to elect a new leader as it does now. The last time there were more ballots was only in 1859/1860. At that time, Republican William Pennington was only elected chairman of the Chamber of Congress in the 44th ballot. The process took several weeks at the time.