After the November parliamentary elections, Congress convened for the first time on Tuesday in a new constellation. Republicans have taken control of the House of Representatives – in the Senate, President Joe Biden’s Democrats still have a narrow majority. The Republicans’ bitter internal struggle for leadership in the House of Representatives has been going on for weeks. But now things have turned out worse than expected for McCarthy.
The Speaker of the House position, which was held by Democrat Nancy Pelosi in recent years, ranks third in the national ranking, behind the president and his deputy. Usually the choice is a formality. But several party colleagues rebelled against McCarthy and had already made it clear before the election that they did not want to vote for McCarthy. He made a series of concessions to his opponents, since, with the narrow majority of Republicans in the House, he depends on almost all the votes.
For McCarthy, his defeat in the election is a public exposure that also shows the turmoil within the party. It’s been a hundred years since a candidate for the Chamber of Deputies won the necessary majority on the first ballot: in 1923, nine ballots were needed to choose a leader. At that time, it took several days.
At first, it was not clear how many more votes would be needed to elect a new seat to the parliamentary chamber. It was also unclear whether the election would last for several days. Each ballot is long because all deputies are called individually to nominate their preferred candidate.
The election of the president is the first major act of a newly elected House of Representatives. And until the presidency is clarified, nothing works: the Chamber cannot begin its work, nor can new deputies be sworn in.
In both the first and second rounds, McCarthy won just 203 of the 434 votes cast – he would have needed 218. 19 party colleagues declined to vote for him in both attempts. Previously, a good dozen party colleagues were expected not to support him. On the third ballot, he lost another vote from his own ranks.
After the first ballot, Republican Congressman Jim Jordan nominated McCarthy for the second attempt and urged his fellow party members to close ranks. But then, immediately afterward, one of McCarthy’s toughest opponents, MP Matt Gaetz, struck back – and named Jordan of all people. Jordan is a loyalist of former President Donald Trump and eventually rallied all 19 dissidents behind him in the runoff.
McCarthy was combative shortly before the session and said, “I hold the record for the longest speech on the floor.” He has no problem setting a record for the most votes cast in a vote for the presidency of the House of Representatives.
Even if McCarthy wins in the end, he will emerge weakened from the race and face some difficulties in organizing majorities in the House of Congress in the coming years.
A visibly angry McCarthy revealed on Tuesday that he had been told on Monday that he could only get the necessary votes if he gave certain jobs and budgets to certain members of the group. His opponent Gaetz went so far as to say bluntly that he did not care if, in a case of doubt, the Democratic candidate won the election. According to McCarthy, his opponents are only concerned with personal advancement, not the country. There may be a “battle” on the House floor, but it’s about the whole faction and the country, “and that’s fine with me.”
The Republican faction in the House of Representatives, like the party as a whole, is split between right-wing Trump supporters and more moderate members of the party. Facing a slim majority, McCarthy must unite the various wings behind him and even recruit members from the fringes of his faction to become leader. The Democrats have no chance of nominating the president on their own because they are the smallest faction in the House.