Republican Congressman Kevin McCarthy has been elected speaker of the United States House of Representatives, overcoming the opposition of right-wing dissenters who had derailed for several days his bid to lead the chamber.
It took 15 rounds of voting for McCarthy to secure the House’s gavel, securing 216 of the 428 votes cast late on Friday. The Democrats’ Hakeem Jeffries got 212 votes.
“My father always told me, it’s now how you start, it’s how you finish”, McCarthy said in his first speech.
“Our system is built on checks and balances. It’s time for us to be a check and provide some balance to the president’s policies”, he added.
With McCarthy finally ascending to the speaker’s chair, the House will finally start swearing in newly elected lawmakers and the 2023-24 session can begin.
It was the first time in a century that a speaker was not elected in the first round as majority of right-wing extremists rejected McCarthy’s 14 times.
McCarthy’s speakership bid appeared up in the air before the House meeting on Friday. He had been negotiating with right-wing dissenters after three days of failure to secure a majority.
Republicans only narrowly took control of the House after a disappointing midterm election performance in November that saw Democrats retain control of the United States Senate.
Before the 15th round of voting, the California lawmaker said he believed victory was close, and that the four-day-long standoff within his party would soon come to an end.
Supporters of McCarthy and some Democrats were concerned that the compromises he made to win the position of House speaker, such as agreeing to let any individual member call for a vote to oust him at any moment, could prolong the worst level of parliamentaryy dysfunction in more than 150 years.
Source: Al Jazeera
