House Adjourns To 7th Voting Session To Pick A Speaker: McCarthy, Donalds Or Scalise?

The House of Representatives adjourned until 8 p.m. EST on Wednesday, Jan. 4, after far-right lawmakers blocked Republican Kevin McCarthy’s attempts to become speaker of the House in six separate voting sessions (UPDATE: House members voted at 8 p.m. to adjourn until noon EST, Thursday, Jan. 5).

On Wednesday, McCarthy scored 201 votes in the fourth, fifth and sixth rounds (falling short of the 218 votes needed); Florida Rep. Byron Donalds grabbed 20 Republican votes during the fifth and sixth sessions.

Louisiana Rep. and current GOP majority leader Steve Scalise is reportedly an option right-wing House members are considering for speaker, underscoring just how divided the party has become in the 118th Congress.

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Republican Victoria Spartz of Indiana voted "present" in all three rounds on Wednesday. If enough Republicans vote "present," Democrat Hakeem Jeffries could be elected speaker with just the 212 votes he continues to tally.

The results follow a dramatic back-and-forth between McCarthy and hard-lined Republicans, including Matt Gaetz, Chip Roy and Lauren Boebert.

Meanwhile, Democrats remain unanimous in their support for Jeffries but grow frustrated for being unable to carry out constituent services and appoint committee members due to the Republican stalemate.

It's worth noting the speaker does not need to be a member of Congress.

This is the first time in a century that it has taken more than one ballot to elect a speaker. In 1923, it took nine ballots. Before that, in 1856, it took 163 rounds of voting — two months.

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