Kevin McCarthy Elected as Speaker of the House for the 118th Congress
It took 15 votes beginning Jan. 3, but Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) finally gained enough votes to be elected the 55th Speaker of the House of Representatives in a nail-bitingly close election that ran past midnight in the lower chamber of the U.S. Capitol.
McCarthy’s 216 votes total bested Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, who received the votes of all 212 Democrats present in the chamber on everyone but one of the 15 votes that began a little after noon Jan. 3 when the 118th Congress convened for the day. Jeffries received 211 on an earlier vote when Rep. David Trone (D-Md.) missed balloting for surgery….