US House adjourns sans Speaker after Republican leader Kevin McCarthy lost his bid

In a one of a kind political slugfest, the US House of Representatives got adjourned after the Republican leader Kevin McCarthy lost his bid to be elected as the speaker of the House. On January 4, the Republican leader not only managed to lose the first round ballot but lost the other two that followed. After they failed to choose the US Speaker of the House, the House adjourned without a speaker for the first time since 1923. As the house reaches its stalemate, the saga of finding a speaker through ballot voting will continue until one leader gets a majority of votes. The matter becomes even more urgent since the house can’t start regular business until a speaker is elected.

According to CBS, this is the eighth time in American history that a speaker had not been chosen after three ballots. The Republican leader was eying to succeed Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi as the speaker of the House. His chances to win the position were quite bright since the Republican party has a thin majority in the US House of Representatives. In this scenario, Rep. Kevin McCarthy could only afford to lose only four republican votes. However, things went downhill after McCarthy lost 20 votes and even fell behind the Democratic leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries who managed to receive all the Democratic votes. 

McCarthy even managed to lose one vote from one of his strongest supporters, Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida. Donald, who held his ground and voted for McCarthy in the first two ballot rounds, decided to vote against him on the third ballot. According to CBS, he then went on to suggest that McCarthy will keep on losing votes as the ballot proceeded further. In the midst of the chaos, some of the republicans decided to initiate a mutiny against McCarthy after many pushed Rep, Jim Jordan to challenge him. After the historic chaos that took place in the House, lawmakers decided to adjourn the meeting until January 4 noon. 

What lies ahead? 

With the current stalemate in the House, the members of the 188th US Congress cannot be sworn in, until the house finds its new speaker. As a result of this, the House will not be able to consider any legislation or form committees until the chaos is sorted. The last time the house was in this intense situation was in the year 1856 when it took the house around two months to elect a speaker. While the Republican bloc was witnessing the mayhem, the Democratic bloc represented a united front as they all voted for Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is also the first Black Person nominated to lead either of the chambers of the Congress. 

However, after witnessing embarrassing results on the ballot thrice, the Republican leader remains hopeful about his prospect of becoming Pelosi's successor. The defiant republican leader told the reporters, “We stay until we win”. According to the BBC, the house can either vote McCarthy or he bows out and backs someone else. The Democratic Rep. Jeffries on the other hand will need around 5 republican votes to take over the post of the US Speaker of the House and create history. Hence, it will be interesting to see how this historic political saga will be concluded.