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Kevin McCarthy
Photo: SHAWN THEW/EPA
It was a historic Thursday in the US House of Representatives.
Round after round, five times in all, a group of stubborn far-right Republicans failed Kevin McCarthy to become powerful Speaker of the House.
Even in the eleventh round in the evening, the deviants remained stubborn, McCarthy clearly missed the necessary majority.
A twelfth round should take place from Friday afternoon (6 p.m. German time).
For McCarthy, it's a never-ending embarrassment.
In round eleven he only got 200 votes, 218 would be necessary. Again and again there are negotiations behind the scenes, which have not brought a breakthrough so far.
There have not been so many elections since 1859/1860.
Republican William Pennington was only elected chairman in the 44th ballot.
The procedure took several weeks.
The office of Speaker of the House is the third highest in the United States government hierarchy, after the President and Vice President.
McCarthy wants to succeed Democrat Nancy Pelosi in the post.
Without a spokesman, the chamber cannot start its work and operations come to a standstill.
The 57-year-old McCarthy apparently made major concessions to his party opponents again before the third day of the election – but they continue to refuse to support him.
20 MPs also voted for other candidates in round eleven, one MP abstained.
With Republicans holding a narrow majority in the House of Representatives, McCarthy needs almost every vote in his party to become leader.
Specifically, he needs 218 votes to win, his party has 222 seats.
Even many concessions did not help
McCarthy reportedly agreed ahead of the third day of voting to further lower the bar on removing a House leader.
He offers his opponents a means of pressure to set him off again at will.
This could have serious consequences and create even more instability when important decisions are due in Congress.
McCarthy had already gone a long way towards meeting the apostates on this point.
Already on Tuesday and Wednesday, several Republicans had refused to support their party colleague and voted for other candidates in the election for the presidency.
It is the first time in a hundred years that the election has required more than one attempt and that a parliamentary group has not elected its candidate to office in the first round.
In 1923, nine ballots were necessary.
jok/dpa