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McCarthy Suffers 6th Straight Loss for Speaker Bid – UPDATE: House GOP Delays Speaker Vote to Thursday

In a once-in-century political stalemate, the House rejected Rep. Kevin McCarthy for Speaker over six consecutive votes, prompting frustrated Republicans to break into negotiating teams Wednesday night to find a potential resolution.

Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., confirmed to Just the News that the party’s competing wings have entered negotiations to reach a compromise on choosing the next Speaker of the House. Twenty GOP lawmakers have consistently opposed McCarthy’s nomination, thwarting him from reaching the required total.

“Every hour in every day that we sit up here, negotiating this and these 20 members holding out on who the mass majority of the conference voted to be speaker is the day we’re not working for the American people and fighting against the Biden agenda,” Steube told the Just the News, No Noise television show.

McCarthy, the party’s lead contender for the post, has failed six times thus far to secure the support of a majority of lawmakers. The House voted three times on Wednesday and no candidate received the necessary 218 votes.

A stalwart group of 20 House Republicans remain directly opposed to McCarthy’s leadership during the votes on Tuesday and Wednesday. That bloc backed Florida Republican Rep. Byron Donalds all three times on Wednesday. Donalds voted for McCarthy before defecting in later votes.

The House adjourned until 8 p.m. Wednesday, at which time it will hold yet another vote for speaker.

Steube confirmed that the adjournment was designed to provide time for the opposing groups to negotiate.

UPDATE:

House Republicans successfully but narrowly voted Wednesday night to adjourn until Thursday, after a break of several hours and indications that some progress might have been achieved in talks between Kevin McCarthy’s supporters and 20 GOP opponents.

After a frenzied round of voting and clamoring by members, they voted 216-214 to adjourn.

Every Democrat voted against adjourning and they were joined by four Republicans: Andy Biggs of Arizona, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Elijah Crane of Arizona and Matt Gaetz of Florida. But every other Republican voted to call it a day, and the House will return Thursday at noon to try again.

Just before the vote, McCarthy said some progress was made in negotiations with his opponents, and said it would be more productive to keep talking rather than hold more votes.

“I crawl before I walk, I walk before I run,” McCarthy said after the House adjourned. “I felt as though we had a very good discussion.”

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