On Friday, Republican Congressman Kevin McCarthy was finally elected speaker of the House of Representatives after 15 rounds of voting.
“My father always told me, it’s now how you start, it’s how you finish”
– Kevin McCarthy, US House Speaker
In November, the Republicans gained a narrow 222-212 majority in the House after a dissapointing midterm election, while the Democrats retained control of the Senate.
After three days of negotiations with right-wing dissenters who opposed McCarthy’s leadership, he finally gained 216 out of 428 votes.
McCarthy is set to replace Nancy Pelosi, who recently announced her plan to step down from Democratic House leadership. Hakeem Jeffries received 212 votes and will become House minority leader.
The incident was the first time in a century that a Speaker of the House was not elected in the first round.
