THE U.S. House of Representatives have elected GOP leader Kevin McCarthy of California as speaker in a dramatic 15th vote early Saturday, after a contentious four days and 14 failed ballots — the longest the chamber has gone leaderless in a century.
In a dramatic showdown on the House floor in the middle of the 14th failed vote at around 11 p.m. ET Friday, McCarthy personally confronted GOP Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida and Lauren Boebert of Colorado.
Despite making numerous concessions to win support from them and other far right Republicans over the course of the week, they still refused to support McCarthy outright.
They, instead, joined four other Republicans in the 15th and final vote by voting “present,” which helped him clinch the gavel by reducing the number of votes he needed to get to a majority.
He won with 216 out of 428 possible votes.
