New vote of negative result. And there are already 12 and the milestone is bigger. the republican congressman kevin mccarthy has not achieved enough votes this Friday to be elected president of the United States Lower House in the twelfth ballotheld this Friday, although he managed to change the vote of several of the wayward congressmen who refused to support him.
The US did not have to carry out so many votes to elect the president of the Lower House since 1859, more than 160 years ago, when it took 44 attempts to do so.
Faced with the twenty ultra Republicans who refused to support him in previous votes, the Californian was rejected by seven of his party’s congressmenwho continue to prevent an end to the chaos unleashed in recent days in Congress.
The Republican candidate achieved a total of 213 votes in favor after having managed, after arduous meetings held in recent days, to change the vote of 14 congressmen, 13 who previously supported other candidates and one more who had abstained until now.
A new vote will have to be held, number 13. To win it, McCarthy would have to win the support of at least three of the seven congressmen who still reject him and could afford four not to endorse him.
Democrat Hakeem Jeffries got 211 votes, those of all the congressmen present from his party, while the other two candidates proposed by the wayward conservatives, Missouri legislator Kevin Hern and Ohio legislator Jim Jordan, obtained 3 and 4 endorsements, respectively. .
Florida legislator Matt Gaetz, an ally of former President Donald Trump, was the one who proposed Jordan and in his speech prior to the vote he assured that McCarthy will not get the necessary votes “not today, not tomorrow, not next week, not next month “.
It is, therefore, one of the hardest nuts to crack for the Californian, who aspires to become a “speaker”, an important political figure in the country whose functions include setting a large part of the legislative calendar, deciding which projects are voted on and when.
Without a president of the lower house, the 118th Congress cannot begin and the only option to elect it is to continue voting until one candidate reaches a majority.
A group of ultra-Republicans has been blocking McCarthy from taking office since Tuesday, throwing its support behind alternative conservative candidates, ballot after ballot. They are the right wing of the Republican Party, grouped in the so-called Freedom Caucus.
