Republicans Can't Agree On Their House Speaker

In six votes conducted over two days so far, the Republicans in the U.S. House have failed to secure a majority backing for a Speaker of the House, which they must to commence any other business. 

The Republicans only have 222 seats in the House and need 218 to elect a speaker, but about 20 far right conservatives in the GOP caucus refuse to support Kevin McCarthy, who is backed by the rest of the GOP caucus.

The last time a Speaker wasn't confirmed on a first vote was in 1923. All of the other times were before the U.S. Civil War. The longest struggle to elect a Speaker of the House was in 1856, which took 133 rounds of voting (the longest ever) stretching over two months.

The tally for the first ballot in the speaker vote was 203 for McCarthy, with 19 Republicans voting for other candidates. 

The tally for the second ballot was 203 votes for McCarthy with 19 votes for GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio. 

In the third round of voting, there were 202 votes for McCarthy and 20 votes for Jordan, with Rep. Byron Donalds joining the 19 GOP lawmakers who had voted against McCarthy in the first two rounds. . . .  

In the fourth round of voting, 20 Republicans voting together for Donalds as the group switched their collective support from Jordan to Donalds. Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana voted present, lowering McCarthy’s threshold to 217. . . .

The final tally for the fifth vote was again 201 votes for McCarthy, 20 for Donalds and one present vote.

The final tally for the sixth vote was the same: 201 for McCarthy, 20 for Donalds and one present vote.

From CNN. 

The House has adjourned until noon on Thursday.