Loss No. 10 as McCarthy, Opponents Keep Seeking Speaker Agreement

Rep. Kevin McCarthy lost a 10th straight vote in his bid to become the new speaker of the House of Representatives on Jan. 5, although the back-room bargaining continues between the California Republican and populist conservatives who are demanding new leadership in Congress.

As occurred in the nine previous counts, beginning on Jan. 3, Democratic leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York received the votes of all 212 members of his party. In the 10th round, McCarthy received 200 Republican votes, while Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida got 13 votes; to become speaker of the House, the winner must receive 218 votes or a majority of the members voting.

And the stalemate continues, as McCarthy appears to have suffered defeat in an 11th ballot as more than five GOP members opposed his bid.

During the seventh ballot, Donalds was seen leaving the chamber with Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Mich.), who is expected to be McCarthy’s majority whip. Also during the voting, a senior aide to McCarthy was seen on the floor talking with Rep. Michael Cloud (R-Texas), who is one of the holdouts.

Those brief confabs were indicative of the continuing talks between McCarthy and a dozen of the holdouts, led by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), who are seeking concessions that would open the House up to more amendments from the floor, increased power for committee chairmen, and assured seats on key committees for members of the House Freedom Caucus (HFC).

The HFC began lobbying McCarthy last summer for such changes and, even as a majority of its 42 members are backing McCarthy, the group has been at the heart of the dissident revolt.

Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) leads the HFC. While the seventh round of voting was underway, Perry told Fox News, when challenged to say who could become speaker by collecting 218 votes, that “if Kevin McCarthy agrees to these changes, it will be him.”

But Perry also reiterated that he and the other holdouts won’t end their opposition to  McCarthy as long as they doubt the Californian will abide by the concessions he’s been making in recent days.

House Clerk Cheryl Johnson presides as voting continues for the chamber’s next speaker at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Jan. 5, 2023. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Hopes for a deal before the chamber reconvened on Jan. 5 were boosted when McCarthy left the negotiating area late in the evening and a related agreement was reached between the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF), a political action committee (PAC) aligned with McCarthy; and the Club for Growth (CFG).

The CFG is a conservative PAC that has helped elect dozens of the most conservative Republicans in both the Senate and the House in recent years. Former Indiana Republican Rep. David McIntosh leads the CFG.

The agreement between the PACs reflects the anger sparked among the populist conservatives during the 2022 midterm campaigns when the CLF supported Rep.-elect Morgan Luttrell in a bitterly contested Texas primary against a CFG-backed candidate.

“This agreement … fulfills a major concern we have pressed for.” McIntosh said in a statement. “We understand that Leader McCarthy and Members are working on a rules agreement that will meet the principles we have set out previously. Assuming these principles are met, Club for Growth will support Kevin McCarthy for Speaker.”

Earlier in the day, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) told NTD that “most of my colleagues are very frustrated like I am. But this is important. People say, ‘Oh, this is an emergency.’ No, the emergency is at the southern border. That’s where the emergency is.”

McCaul, who is expected to be chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee once a speaker is selected and the Republican majority officially takes over, expressed confidence.

“We’re going to get to 218. And again, I’m confident this will be a learning experience and, hopefully, when we face the next tough decision to get to 218, we can do it in a timely manner.”

On the other side of the aisle, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the exiting chair of the House Appropriations Committee, told NTD that the continuing stalemate among Republicans in choosing a new speaker reflects poorly on their ability to govern the country.

“I keep thinking about in December, Dec. 23, in a divided government, with us with a two-vote majority on the Democratic side, and a very slim majority in the Senate, [yet] we were able to pass a bipartisan bicameral budget bill [of] $1.7 trillion, that has benefits to all of the services in the country, including community projects.”

DeLauro said her party was able to do that because “you have to govern in order to have government work on behalf of the American people. And that’s what’s being held up, all that ignores to the American people in what we do here, which affects every part of their lives.”

Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.), responding to criticisms of dissident leaders such as Roy, told NTD that while she supports McCarthy, she agrees with the reforms being sought.

“I agree with Chip wholeheartedly. In fact, Chip and I had this conversation on the House floor yesterday, I came here because this process is broken, and we have to fix it. But we are going to see people who are going to put their personal agendas, their personal vendettas, again, above the needs of the country. And that’s not productive.”

Cammack added that “things like having time to read the bills, single-issue bills, getting a vote on the floor for a balanced budget amendment, term-limit votes, these are things that we should all want. And that’s what I’m supportive of.”

“I think Chip has been 100 percent operating in good faith, and I support him.”