House speaker vote: McCarthy thanks Trump for final votes as fight nearly breaks out on floor

In the weeks after an election, the Republican conference and the Democratic caucus hold an informal vote among their members to decide who they want to nominate to lead their party in January.

McCarthy won the majority of the Republican vote in a closed-door November meeting. Weeks later, Democrats unanimously chose Rep. Hakeem Jeffries to become their leader as the party transitions into the minority.

But, once January 3 comes along, members are not obligated to vote for the party’s chosen candidate. While it has been the tradition for the speaker candidate to be a member of the House, it is not required.

In past years, President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump and even a senator, Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky, have received votes for House speaker.

To be sure, none of them received the majority of the vote.

Additional reporting from AP

Choosing a speaker will be the first vote the House will take before new and returning lawmakers are even sworn into office on Tuesday.

As set out under the Constitution, the session will begin at noon on 3 January, with all the lawmakers seated on the House floor and members from both parties joining in the vote for speaker.

The chamber cannot organise until it has a speaker since that person effectively serves as the House’s presiding officer and the institution’s administrative head.

The House can elect a new speaker at any time if the person occupying that role dies, resigns or is removed from office. Barring that, a speaker is normally elected at the start of a new Congress.

Lawmakers call out the name of their choice for speaker from the floor, a rare and time-consuming roll call that heightens the drama on the floor. Members often liven up the proceedings by shouting or standing when casting their vote.

On Monday evening, Kevin McCarthy was seen meeting with a group of lawmakers including Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert in the House speaker’s chamber in a last-ditch attempt to get enough votes to get him over the line.

Following the meeting, Mr Gaetz made barbed comments describing the conversations as “brief and productive” while doubling down that he will not support Mr McCarthy’s bid.

He told reporters: “We had a brief and productive discussion.”

Asked how it was productive, he quipped: “In so far as it was brief.”

When asked if Mr McCarthy had won his support, Mr Gaetz replied: ”No.”

The House speaker vote will take place today, with Republican leader Kevin McCarthy still lacking enough votes to safely take hold of the gavel.

The election of the House speaker takes place before the chamber has settled on the rules for the next Congress, the 118th. This means that the vote will occur without regular procedures in place.

The House will meet for a Pro Forma session at 10am on Tuesday and adjourn the 117th Congress with the first session of the 118th Congress to convene at 12pm.

The prayer will be offered and the Pledge of Allegiance recited. After that will come a roll call vote, at which point Mr McCarthy, or a challenger, may fail to reach the 218 votes needed to become speaker.

The clerk can, in theory, repeat the roll call voice vote until a candidate gets a majority. But this is unlikely to go on for long. In the past, three or four votes have taken place at most.

Rep Andy Biggs is also running against Kevin McCarthy for the House speaker role.

The Arizona Republican, a former leader of the Freedom Caucus, announced in early December that he planned to challenge Mr McCarthy.

However, he is also not expected to pull a majority of votes.

Mr McCarthy comfortably defeated him in the November nominating contest, with a vote of 188-31.

Rep Steve Scalise has been billed as a possible challenger for the House speaker role.

The second-ranking House Republican is regarded as an obvious next choice if Kevin McCarthy fails to get enough votes.

The Louisiana congressman is widely liked by his colleagues and seen by some as a hero after surviving a brutal mass shooting during a congressional baseball game practice in 2017.

Once rivals, Mr McCarthy and Mr Scalise have become a team. Mr Scalise’s office rejected as “false” a suggestion Monday by another Republican that he was making calls about the speaker’s race.

Additional reporting from AP

Nine House Republicans sent a letter criticising House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s bid to become House speaker despite his overtures.

Republican Representatives Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Chip Roy of Texas and seven others wrote that Mr McCarthy’s responses to their demands were “insufficient.”

The letter came two days before the new Congress begins. Republicans won the majority in the House of Representatives in November, but only by a narrow margin. Republicans will only have 222 seats, which is only four more than the required 218 votes Mr McCarthy has needed.

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Rep Scott Perry, on of the Republican holdouts on the speaker vote, appears to say that any talks with Kevin McCarthy have failed.

“Kevin McCarthy had an opportunity to be Speaker of the House. He rejected it.”

Kevin McCarthy remains confident of his ability to “unite the team”, emphasising that the party made a commitment to the American public to fight for them.