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“Well, it’s Groundhog Day – again,” said Congresswoman Kat Cammack of Florida, nominating Republican leader Kevin McCarthy for speaker of the House on the sixth ballot.
But as he had five times before, McCarthy suffered yet another humiliating defeat at the hands of 20 hard-right Republican holdouts determined to block his rise.
McCarthy vowed to forge ahead. But it was clear Republicans were growing weary of the once-in-a-century spectacle that has already tainted the opening days of their new House majority. Despite three rousing speeches endorsing his candidacy on Wednesday, his prospects seemed dimmer than ever.
Congresswoman Victoria Spartz, a Republican from Indiana, changed her vote to “present” after supporting McCarthy on the first three rounds of ballots. She implored her party to “stop wasting everyone’s time” with endless rounds of balloting that were not changing any minds.
“Let cooler, more rational heads prevail,” pleaded Congressman Warren Davidson, a Republican from Ohio and a member of the far-right Freedom Caucus, in a speech urging support for McCarthy.
Moments later, Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, another member of the Freedom Caucus and a conservative rabble-rouser from Colorado, called on her “favorite president” – Donald Trump – to level with McCarthy. Trump, she said, should tell the Republican leader: “Sir, you do not have the votes and it’s time to withdraw.”
But McCarthy remained hopeful that a third day of balloting would yield a different result. Deadlocked, Republicans voted to adjourn and return on Thursday for another round.
The brinkmanship underscored just how difficult it will be for any Republican to govern the chamber, where divisions have been building for years. Rebellious hardliners thwarted McCarthy’s hopes of becoming speaker once before, in 2015, when he bowed out of the race. And they chased out two of the would-be speaker’s Republican predecessors, John Boehner and Paul Ryan.
