US House adjourns with no Speaker elected, never happened in 164 years
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Washington: The US House of Representatives has adjourned for a third day without electing a new Speaker for the first time in 164 years. After 11 votes, it has become the longest contest since 1860 to elect a Speaker.
The Speaker of the House is the second in line to the presidency, after Vice President Kamala Harris. No legislative business in the House can be conducted there without them. The last time the US House had trouble electing a Speaker was in 1860 when it went through 44 rounds of ballots over the issue of slavery.
The 435-seat lower chamber, where Republicans have a slim majority over Democrats, is unable to conduct any legislative business until a speaker is elected. The House has voted 11 times since the 118th Congress convened on Tuesday. The House will not be convening at noon on Friday, which is the second anniversary of the 2021 Capitol riot.
Kevin McCarthy from California, the House Republican leader since 2019, fell short of the necessary votes to become Speaker in five more rounds of voting Thursday afternoon. McCarthy has the support of most House Republicans and former President Donald Trump. Today, a group of 20 hard-line Republican lawmakers is refusing to give the California Congressman the necessary 218 votes.
"It's all going to be this way until an agreement comes. It's easier if we're able to all get an agreement together," McCarthy told CNN. When asked at what point he would make the realisation that the outcome won't change, he said: "After I win."
One of the 20 dissidents, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, told the BBC that he "simply does not trust McCarthy." He added that McCarthy's team threatened political retaliation against them if they did not fall in line. "We were going to be thrown off committees. We're going to lose every privilege we had. And we'd basically told them, If we can't ask questions, if we can't vet the most powerful person that we're getting ready to put in office, then we're out."
All Democrats have voted for Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat. However, it is unlikely that he will attain the position. If elected, he will become the first African-American lawmaker to lead a party in either chamber of Congress.
In the November 8, 2022, midterm elections, Republicans won the House by a slender margin of 222 to 212 in the 435-seat chamber. But, Democrats retained control of the Senate.