Attempt to quell opposition with further concessions fails to save California congressman’s bid for the position
Mr McCarthy made history on Tuesday when he became the first majority leader in a century to fail in the first round of voting. In 1923, it took nine rounds of voting to elect a speaker.
Twenty Republican rebels on Wednesday rejected Mr McCarthy and rallied instead around Byron Donalds, a Republican congressman from Florida. Some of the rebels have personal grievances with Mr McCarthy while others have demanded rule changes that would make it easier to oust the speaker. Republicans took back control of the House of Representatives in November’s midterm elections. But Mr McCarthy finds himself in such a tough position because the “red wave” he predicted did not materialise and Republicans control the chamber by a razor-thin margin, leaving him beholden to a small number of rebels.
Mr McCarthy had received an apparent boost earlier on Wednesday when Donald Trump, the former US president, issued a full-throated endorsement of his candidacy, saying: “It’s now time for all our GREAT Republican House members to VOTE FOR KEVIN, CLOSE THE DEAL, TAKE THE VICTORY.”
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