House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy fell 15 votes short of securing the speaker’s gavel Tuesday in the first of what could be several ballots to determine who will lead the chamber for the next two years.
A second ballot is about to get underway.
Members of the 118th Congress have yet to be officially sworn into office — that occurs after a speaker is elected — but have already made history. This is the first time in a century that a speaker election has not concluded in a single ballot and only the 15th time out of 127 speaker elections held since 1789.
