The first round of votes is in —and McCarthy doesn’t have 218.
According to a report from Fox News, the House of Representatives leadership election is going to a second ballot for the first time since 1923 after no candidate secured the 218 votes necessary to be elected House speaker.
The failure to reach 218 was widely expected, and McCarthy himself indicated that he expected a few rounds of voting.
From Fox News:
By the end of the vote, 19 Republicans voted for someone other than McCarthy, enough to prevent him from hitting the 218 threshold. It was the first of what could be several votes for the speaker.
McCarthy captured 203 votes, fewer than the 212 won by Democrat Hakeem Jeffries of New York.
Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., was nominated as an alternative Republican candidate to McCarthy in the first round, a move he said he would make after he challenged McCarthy in a GOP conference meeting late last year. Biggs won 10 of the 19 anti-McCarthy GOP votes in the first round of voting.
Rep, Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) called opposition to McCarthy “unbelievably petty.”
“You’ve got these members who just showed who they are,” Crenshaw said. “No one knows what their goal is. They say their goal is some noble cause for the cause of conservatism, for the people, for holding the swamp accountable. These are the phrases that they’ll use to make themselves seem like they’re some white knights out there to save you. Of course, none of this is true. None of this is true whatsoever.”
This story is developing…
House Republican rips party members opposing McCarthy speaker bid: 'Unbelievably petty' https://t.co/EBjsVzTXdK
— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 3, 2023
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