1-6-23 – 4 Votes – Finally a Speaker –

Tonight, in a late fourth vote, the House elected Kevin McCarthy the Speaker of the House, by a (finally) party-line vote of 216 to 212.

Two votes during the afternoon session showed that the Republican’s ‘Freedom Caucus’ had finally reached agreements with McCarthy, giving him 214 of the 218 votes necessary for a majority. The six ‘Never-Kevin’ Republicans continued to vote for Jordan. The McCarthy team decided that it was time for more backroom discussions, so the House adjourned until 10:00 pm.

The vote at 10:00 that McCarthy vowed that he would win (with the returning votes of two representative-elects that were absent from Washington earlier in the day). While two of the ‘Never-Kevin’ faction {Boebert (R,CO) and Getz (R,FL} changed their vote to ‘Present’, the remaining four continued to vote for Jordan and Biggs. This left McCarthy one vote shy of the needed 217 votes (50% plus 1 of the 432 votes cast for someone) to become Speaker.

Watching on CSPAN, there were tense words exchanged on the floor during that vote between McCarthy and Getz.

After the vote the Republicans moved to adjourn until Monday at noon and a recorded vote was demanded. At about the time that 15-minute time limit on that vote should have ended (with the unofficial electronic scoreboard showing 216 votes for adjournment and 212 against, another quick round of conversations could be seen on the floor in the area around McCarthy. McCarthy moved to the front of the House and filled out a red card changing the his recorded vote from ‘Yeah’ to ‘Nay’. A large number of other Republicans quickly joined him in changing their votes.

Another (and ultimately final) vote for Speaker was started at 11:45. This time, all of the ‘Never-Kevin’ Republicans voted ‘Present’ changing the total vote to 428, making the 216 votes for McCarthy a majority of the votes cast for a person.