Who voted to oust McCarthy as speaker? See the final tally of the House roll call

Table Of Content

• Republicans to hold another candidate forum at 6 p.m.
• Bill would allow Arizona abortion providers to practice in California temporarily
• Ukraine, Israel aid advances in rare House vote as Democrats help Republicans push it forward
• Chip Roy told GOP leaders he thinks he can bring along 10 holdouts
• McHenry unsure if House will vote on Tuesday

Johnson relied on Democratic support to ensure the military and humanitarian support, with the first major package for Ukraine since December 2022, won approval. The House swiftly approved $95 billion in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies in a rare Saturday session as Democrats and Republicans banded together after months of political turmoil over support for repelling Russia’s invasion. The shift from Democrats is noteworthy given their lockstep support of the motion to vacate that led to the ouster of Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in October, which ultimately resulted in Johnson’s getting the gavel. Members tried to remove speakers in previous congressional terms, but no motion ever reached the floor for a vote.

Republicans to hold another candidate forum at 6 p.m.

But Representative Mike Rogers of Alabama, a McCarthy ally who is in line to become the next chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, took it to another level when he stepped toward Mr. Gaetz and had to be restrained. “What we’re seeing is the incredibly shrinking speakership, and that’s most unfortunate for Congress,” former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, said as she entered the chamber on Friday afternoon. With Mr. McCarthy elected, he immediately turned to swearing in the 434 members of the House to officially seat the 118th Congress. Republicans announced that they would wait until Monday to consider a package of rules for the chamber, which is expected to enshrine many of the compromises Mr. McCarthy made to win his post. Mr. Gaetz refused to budge, and Mr. McCarthy’s allies moved to adjourn the House until Monday, crestfallen after a defeat they had not anticipated.

Bill would allow Arizona abortion providers to practice in California temporarily

Rep. Gary Palmer of Alabama announced ahead of the closed-door conference meeting that he is dropping out of the race to be speaker, leaving seven candidates vying for the position. Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry left the conference meeting around 11 a.m. Donalds voluntarily withdrew from the race after the fourth round, and Hern dropped off the ballot, according to lawmakers. Several members have said Emmer initially wanted to go to the floor today, but that seems highly unlikely unless he can flip some of the holdouts during the open forum. Republican Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota is now the GOP nominee for speaker, besting Rep. Mike Johnson in Republicans' final secret ballot, according to House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik.

Ukraine, Israel aid advances in rare House vote as Democrats help Republicans push it forward

Four Republican lawmakers voted against a motion to adjourn the House until Thursday. If the House had not adjourned, members would have held another vote for speaker. The deals McCarthy struck with a group of fewer than two dozen hard-line Republicans will empower the far right of his party ahead of a congressional term that promises contentious battles over funding the federal government and increasing the debt ceiling. "The reason Kevin McCarthy went down today is because nobody trusts Kevin McCarthy," Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida told reporters after the vote. Rep. Gary Palmer of Alabama has been in the House since 2015, and he currently serves as the chairman of the Republican Policy Committee. "That four threshold is very tough. It's a very tough thing, no matter who it is," Trump said, referring to the number of Republican defections a speaker candidate can afford to lose and still win on the floor with a GOP majority.

Top lawmakers on national security committees, who are privy to classified briefings, have grown gravely concerned about the situation in recent as Russia pummels Ukrainian forces beset by a shortage of troops and ammunition. While aid for Ukraine failed to win a majority of Republicans, several dozen progressive Democrats voted against the bill aiding Israel as they demanded an end to the bombardment of Gaza that has killed thousands of civilians. The $61 billion in aid for Ukraine passed in a matter of minutes, a strong showing as lawmakers race to deliver a fresh round of aid to the war-torn ally.

Chip Roy told GOP leaders he thinks he can bring along 10 holdouts

All three met with Mr. Trump or White House officials as they discussed how to fight the election results, according to evidence gathered by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack. Mr. McCarthy still wins re-election in the district with two-thirds of the vote, but the passionate minority of the majority has become his Achilles’ heel, as it has been on the House floor this week. Upon hearing that a speaker had not been elected, shouts of disappointment filled the air. Last call came, before the Republicans voted to go to a 15th ballot instead of adjourning — an unexpected opportunity for another viewing party. Former President Donald J. Trump made a crucially timed call to Representative Matt Gaetz on Friday night after the Florida congressman voted “present” and sunk Kevin McCarthy’s 14th effort to be elected House speaker.

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Mr. Johnson has opposed continued funding for the war in Ukraine, which has emerged as a bitter fault line in the G.O.P. and in the spending battles that he will have to navigate in the coming days. Mr. Johnson immediately faces a host of challenges that dogged his predecessor, Mr. McCarthy. He is confronting a mid-November deadline to pass a measure to fund the government to avert a shutdown. And he will need to lead a conference deeply divided over foreign policy as Congress considers the Biden administration’s $105 billion funding request for Israel, Ukraine and the southern border. The vote put him second in line to the presidency, capping an extraordinary period of twists and turns on Capitol Hill.

Vote Count: Mike Johnson Elected House Speaker After Three-Week Vacancy - The New York Times

Vote Count: Mike Johnson Elected House Speaker After Three-Week Vacancy.

Posted: Wed, 25 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Mike Johnson is now House speaker. Here’s the latest.

The House speaker election hasn’t required multiple ballots in a floor vote since 1923, when Rep. Frederick Gillett (R-Mass.) was elected on the ninth ballot. According to the House historian, every speaker election that went more than three rounds lasted at least nine, with one going to 133 ballots in the mid-1800s. GOP lawmakers are expected to rally their votes behind Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, to be the next speaker despite reluctance from some who are wary of his hardline approach. Conservatives have been mounting an intense pressure campaign to persuade the final holdouts to support him.

Even so, McCarthy stuck with the usual divided-government playbook, compromising as little as possible with Democrats and poking them in the eye when he could, not least by opening a groundless impeachment inquiry against Biden. The University of Southern California scrapped all outside speakers from its upcoming commencement ceremonies, following backlash over an earlier decision to cancel a speech by the Class of 2024’s valedictorian. McCarthy drew false equivalence between the griping of sour-grape Democrats who lost elections and the pernicious legal and tactical fights Trump and his allies waged to overturn Biden’s victory. McCarthy broke with former President Trump and many fellow Republicans by supporting U.S. aid for Ukraine and likening Vladimir Putin to Hitler. He said, without the slightest hesitation, that Joe Biden won the 2020 election, shooting down Trump’s persistent lies about his defeat.

"I hope they will not move forward with that," he said of the GOP trio that is sponsoring the motion to vacate resolution. "I think we ought to have a contest in November, a deliberative process to select, hopefully, the speaker of the House majority. But I don't think it'd be a wise course of action to do that now." The White House and congressional Democrats had urged Speaker Mike Johnson to hold a vote on that Senate package in the wake of Iran's recent unprecedented attack on Israel, and amid briefings that Ukraine is in dire need of U.S. aid. Asked whether she plans to move forward with her motion to vacate Johnson’s speakership, she said, “It’s coming regardless of what Mike Johnson decides to do." In a post to his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump lamented that there is “so much unnecessary turmoil in the Republican Party” but made no mention of what transpired on the House floor.

The new speaker has been in Congress since 2017 and has no experience in the House leadership. Also part of the proposal, Republicans familiar with it said, was a commitment by the leader to give the ultraconservative faction approval over a third of the seats on the powerful Rules Committee, which controls what legislation reaches the floor and how it is debated. He also agreed to open government spending bills to a freewheeling debate in which any lawmaker could force votes on proposed changes.

The full GOP leadership slate elected in November included Reps. Scalise as majority leader, Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) as majority whip, Stefanik as conference chair and Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) as chair of House Republicans’ campaign arm, the National Republican Congressional Committee. The House’s failure to elect a speaker on the first three ballots throws into chaos the beginning of a divided government in Washington, delaying the swearing-in of members of the House, GOP committee assignments and votes on the rules that will govern the new Congress. Rep. Steve Scalise’s (R-La.) nomination did nothing to improve McCarthy’s vote totals in the third round. Nor did Jordan’s speech nominating McCarthy in the second round, despite the staunch support the Ohioan has won from the party’s right wing as a co-founder of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus.

Still, 37 “no” votes, while a break from Washington’s ironclad support for the Jewish state, fell short of the opposition bloc progressives had hoped to muster. Thirty-nine Democrats had voted “no” on Friday on the rule to allow the foreign aid package to come to the House floor, a target that progressives just missed on Saturday on the Israel bill. Fourteen of those Democrats voted on Saturday in favor of aid to Israel, while 12 Democrats who voted to allow the package on the floor on Friday then cast votes against the funding itself. Most recently, Representative Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the No. 3 House Republican, withdrew his bid for the speakership just hours after winning a closed-door vote. A week prior, Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio failed to win the speakership after three floor votes, facing increasing opposition from his own party in each vote. Before him, Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana withdrew his bid after winning a closed-door vote to become the nominee.

Even before the votes had been secured, many at the bar seemed convinced that electing a speaker was inevitable as the vote drew closer to a close. Pats on the back and smiles were exchanged, and many turned their attention away from the TVs. At the same time, Mr. Gaetz had reportedly sought a subcommittee chairmanship in the House Armed Services Committee. Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, had declined yet again to vote for Representative Kevin McCarthy of California on a 14th ballot, helping sink McCarthy’s chances at speaker that round. Even by the heated standards of the tensions that flared among House Republicans during their four-day push to elect a speaker, what happened on the House floor around 11 p.m.