House Adjourns until Thursday after McCarthy Loses Sixth Vote for Speaker
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The House voted Wednesday night to adjourn and reconvene on Thursday after GOP leader Kevin McCarthy failed in a sixth attempt for the speakership earlier in the day.
Republican representative Tom Cole made a motion to adjourn, which succeeded on a razor-thin margin with 216 Republicans favoring and 214 Democrats opposing. There was much hubbub as the votes rolled in, with some members grumbling, some cheering, and others dashing across the room as the process was about to end. Republican representatives Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, Andy Biggs, and Brent Crane voted not to adjourn.
“I think it’s probably best to let people work through it some more. I don’t think a vote tonight does any difference. But I think a vote in the future will,” McCarthy reportedly told Punchbowl News around 7:30 p.m., emerging from closed-door negotiations with detractors.
McCarthy lost three votes for speaker on Tuesday night and another three on Wednesday afternoon, after which the House voted to adjourn until 8 p.m. Wednesday evening. A group of 20 GOP holdouts voted for Representative Byron Donalds (R., Fla.) in all three rounds of voting on Wednesday, keeping McCarthy from reaching the 218 vote threshold needed to win the speakership.
Representative Ken Buck (R., Colo.), who voted for McCarthy in the first six rounds, told reporters the California Republican needs to step aside “at some point” if he cannot secure enough votes and let Representative Steve Scalise (R., La.) run for the speakership.
“What I’ve asked is that if Kevin can’t get there, that he step aside and give Steve a chance to do it,” he said, though he noted Scalise may not have the votes either.
Buck suggested McCarthy must either cut a deal to get the votes or step aside today, or he may pull his support for the GOP leader.
Representative Victoria Spartz (R., Ind.) voted “present” beginning in the fourth round, moving away from her support of McCarthy in the previous ballots.
“We have a constitutional duty to elect the Speaker of the House, but we have to deliberate further as a Republican conference until we have enough votes and stop wasting everyone’s time,” Spartz said in explaining her vote. “None of the Republican candidates have this number yet. That’s why I voted present after all votes were cast.”
The vote headed to a second ballot on Tuesday for the first time since 1923 after 19 Republicans voted against McCarthy in the first round. He could only afford to lose the votes of four House Republicans in order to hit the 218 vote threshold needed to win.
Nineteen Republicans voted against McCarthy in the second round as well. Donalds joined the group of defectors in the third and fourth rounds of voting.
“The reality is Rep. Kevin McCarthy doesn’t have the votes,” Donalds said in a tweet explaining his decision to switch on Tuesday. “I committed my support to him publicly and for two votes on the House Floor. 218 is the number, and currently, no one is there. Our conference needs to recess and huddle and find someone or work out the next steps but these continuous votes aren’t working for anyone.”
Former Representative Justin Amash, a Republican-turned-Libertarian from Michigan, reportedly stood outside the Speaker’s Lobby during the vote on Wednesday and told reporters that he is willing and interested in serving as a compromise Speaker.
“I’m here because I think this process is really uncertain where it goes. And I think I provide a good alternative to a lot of the options being discussed,” he said.
Nonetheless, McCarthy said Tuesday evening he does not plan to drop out of the race for speaker under any circumstances.
“It’s not going to happen,” McCarthy said, per CNN.
He also said he thinks he is “not that far away” from securing 218 votes.
Former president Donald Trump attempted to gin up support for McCarthy on Wednesday.
“[I]t’s now time for all of our GREAT Republican House Members to VOTE FOR KEVIN, CLOSE THE DEAL, TAKE THE VICTORY, & WATCH CRAZY NANCY PELOSI FLY BACK HOME TO A VERY BROKEN CALIFORNIA, THE ONLY SPEAKER IN U.S. HISTORY TO HAVE LOST THE ‘HOUSE’ TWICE!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Boebert suggested Trump should tell McCarthy, “sir, you do not have the votes, and it’s time to withdraw.”
Meanwhile, McCarthy previously offered several concessions on Sunday in an effort to persuade his critics.
“Just as the Speaker is elected by the whole body, we will restore the ability for any 5 members of the majority party to initiate a vote to remove the Speaker if so warranted,” McCarthy wrote in a letter addressed to House Republicans over the weekend.
He also offered to tighten up House proxy-voting procedures.
“Congress was never intended for Zoom, and no longer will members be able to phone it in while attending lavish international weddings or sailing on their boat. We will meet, gather and debate in person — just as the founders envisioned,” McCarthy said.
However, a group of nine conservative Republicans wrote a letter over the weekend saying McCarthy has not done enough to win their support. Roy signed the letter, as did Representatives Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Paul Gosar of Arizona, Dan Bishop of North Carolina, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Andy Harris of Maryland and three representative-elects.
McCarthy pushed back against the demands of his detractors while talking to reporters on Tuesday.
“For the last two months we worked together as a whole conference to develop rules that empower all members but we’re not empowering certain members over others,” he said. “Last night I was presented the only way to have 218 votes: if I provided certain members with certain positions, certain gavels to take over committees, to have certain budgets and they even came to the position where one Matt Gaetz said, ‘I don’t care if we go to plurality and we elect Hakeem Jeffries and it hurts the new frontline members not to get reelected.’”
“Well that’s not about America and I will always fight to put the American people first, not a few individuals that want something for themselves,” McCarthy said. “So we may have a battle on the floor but the battle is for the conference and the country.”
