Kevin McCarthy was elected Speaker of the House after 15 rounds of voting

In the fifteenth round of voting, McCarthy received 216 votes, which is enough for a majority.

Not since 1923 has it taken more than one ballot to elect a Speaker of the House. The leader of the party with the majority is usually elected without any problems. Republicans have 222 of the 435 seats.

But there were always about two dozen Republicans, from the radical right wing of the party. They demanded far-reaching concessions from McCarthy that would weaken his position. For example, they wanted any member to be able to request a vote of confidence in the position of President at any time. McCarthy eventually agreed, but even that wasn’t enough for the sleepers.

Now enough has crossed the line. Today’s first round of voting, the twelfth overall, showed that 14 of the 21 Maverick Republicans had changed their minds and voted for McCarthy anyway. Seven stubborn Republicans remained.

In the thirteenth round of voting, he came even closer: six rebels remained. After that, the House of Representatives decided to postpone the new vote for six hours. That gave McCarthy time to win the last two required MPs.

Now that McCarthy has been elected, the House of Representatives can finally get down to business. If there is no president, new members cannot be sworn in and the legislative process comes to a standstill. The first task of the House of Representatives now is to adopt the rules of procedure for the next two years.