U.S. House Republican leader, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, of California has been elected House Speaker in a dramatic and historic 15th vote after midnight on Saturday morning.
The election of McCarthy has ended four days of bitter intraparty battles among Republicans and put to rest the question of whether McCarthy could ever unite his divided party with its razor-thin majority.
Now that McCarthy has been elected Speaker, his first job will be to swear in the other 433 members of Congress, who have been trapped in limbo as members-elect since Tuesday, when the 118th Congress first opened.
While the vote is still open, McCarthy won more than half of the votes cast, giving him the gavel.
McCarthy’s victory required him and his allies to make extraordinary concessions to a small bloc of far-right holdouts, many of whom had refused to support his Speakership bid for months.
These included changes to House rules that empowered the House Freedom Caucus, a group of ultra conservative Republicans who have earned a reputation for rejecting consensus positions.
Once all the new members are sworn in, the House will move to approve the new package of rules that McCarthy negotiated.
McCarthy won with 216 votes to defeat his closest rival, Rep Hakeem Jeffrries, who garnered 212 votes.
The new Speaker is expected to be sworn-in any moment from now.
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