Kevin McCarthy gets Barely Dragged Across the Finish Line with Donald Trump’s Help, Will be Speaker of the House

U.S. House Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is now officially going to be the Speaker of the House for the 118th Congress, making him third in line to the President.

The 14th vote came in 216 for McCarthy and 212 for new Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), and 4 voted for “others” and two voted present. With McCarthy failing to get 217, just one shy of that number the House moved to a 15th vote for Speaker of the House.

For the 15th vote, all eyes were on Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) as well as Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Bob Good (R-VA), Andy Biggs (R-AZ) Matt Rosendale (R-MT), and Eli Crane (R-AZ), the Republicans who did not vote for McCarthy during the 14th vote.

Gaetz and Boebert both voted present in the 14th vote and the other four voted for someone other than McCarthy for speaker.

The 15th vote started Friday evening right before midnight and carried over into January 7th, Saturday morning.

During the 15th vote, Gaetz and Boebert again voted present as they had in the 14th round.

Biggs, Crane, and Good voted present, this was the first time any of them did not directly vote against McCarthy.

Rosendale did not vote when his name was called the first time, at the end of the vote when he was called on again he also voted present. This was the first time Rosendale did not vote against McCarthy.

With six present votes, McCarthy now had enough to secure his spot as Speaker of the House.