Thursday is Day 3 of the standoff between Kevin McCarthy and 20 colleagues who are withholding the support the California Republican needs to become House speaker.
Pressure mounting, the speaker's chair of the U.S. House sat empty for a third day Thursday, ason the seventh of an excruciating string of ballots to win enough votes from his party to seize the chamber's gavel.
He said that while the House Republicans were "stuck" at the moment, McCarthy, who has failed to seize a majority to become speaker, would ultimately win.Republican party holdouts again put forward the name of fellow Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, assuring the stalemate that increasingly carried undercurrents of race and politics would continue.
What started as a political novelty, the first time in 100 years a nominee had not won the gavel on the first vote, has devolved into a bitter Republican Party feud and deepening potential crisis. House Chaplain Margaret Kibben opened the day's session, perhaps the last of the week, calling on greater powers to "still the storms of dissent."
As the House resumed at noon Thursday it could be a long day. The new Republican majority was not expected to be in session on Friday, which is the anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. A prolonged and divisive speaker's fight would almost certainly underscore the fragility of American democracy after the attempted insurrection two years ago.
Colorado Republican Ken Buck voted for McCarthy but said Wednesday that he told him "he needs to figure out how to make a deal to move forward" or eventually step aside for someone else. The disorganized start to the new Congress pointed to difficulties ahead with Republicans now in control of the House, much the way that some past Republican speakers, including John Boehner, had trouble leading a rebellious right flank. The result: government shutdowns, standoffs and Boehner's early retirement.
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