WASHINGTON — Republican Kevin McCarthy suffered a stunning and humiliating loss in the 14th round of balloting for speaker, just hours after he and his allies had put together a compromise they expected would win over his opponents.
Four hard-line conservative Republicans voted for someone other than McCarthy Friday night and two others voted present. That was enough to prevent him from winning a majority of all House members present and voting.
McCarthy had grown increasingly confident Friday as he won votes from 15 of the GOP opponents who had been blocking him. He and his allies anticipated they’d be able to win over just enough of the remaining holdouts to put an end to the matter and begin organizing the House, which has been at a standstill for four days.
