House Democrats on Tuesday took to Twitter for victory laps after Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries earned votes from all 212 members of the House Democratic Caucus, besting California Representative Kevin McCarthy in the first failed vote to elect a House Speaker since 1923.
Both Mr Jeffries and Mr McCarthy, the longtime House GOP leader, failed to earn an outright majority of the 434 members who were present and voting on the first day of the 118th Congress. Of the 222 House Republicans, 19 of them — more than four times the four-member cushion Mr McCarthy could lose and still be elected speaker, voted against the Californian, with 10 defecting to Andy Biggs of Arizona, six to Jim Jordan of Ohio, and three others voting for other Republican members.
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