Rep. McCarthy Fails To Get Number Of Votes For House Speaker

The House Republican conference’s nominee for speaker, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), failed to get the requisite number of votes Thursday, as a group of 20 hard-line conservatives continued to oppose him.

The Representative-elect from Oklahoma’s 2nd congressional district, Josh Brecheen, is one in the small group who are instead pushing for the election of Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) as speaker.

Rep. Donalds and the Democrats’ nominee, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), are the first Black members ever to be nominated for the high-ranking post, third in line to the president.

McCarthy’s opponents said they don’t trust him to fight for the same principles they believe in and have demanded that he agree to even more significant procedural rule changes for the coming session than he has already conceded.

In an 8th round of voting that started shortly after 2:00 p.m. eastern time, two members of the holdout group, Brecheen and Colorado’s Lauren Boebert, casted their votes for Oklahoma 1st District Representative Kevin Hern.

Rep. Hern, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, has expressed no interest in seeking the Speakership.