McCarthy suffers eighth defeat in bid for House speaker as stalemate drags on

The stalemate over choosing a House speaker continued on Thursday, after the Republican leader Kevin McCarthy failed to win the gavel for an eighth time.

McCarthy won 201 votes on the eighth ballot, leaving him 17 votes short of the 218 needed for a victory. The results mirrored previous rounds of voting, reflecting the entrenched opposition that McCarthy is facing within the House Republican conference.

The Thursday votes included a couple of surprises. Far-right congressman Matt Gaetz, a Republican of Florida, twice cast a ballot for Donald Trump. As the US constitution does not specify that the House speaker must be a member of the chamber, lawmakers are not required to support one of their colleagues. Trump received no other votes.

The evening, too, failed to produce a solution, so the chamber reconvened only to adjourn again until the following afternoon. This is the first time in a century that the House has not chosen a speaker on the first ballot.

In another major win for far-right House members, the McCarthy-aligned Pac Congressional Leadership Fund has reached an agreement with the organization Club for Growth to not invest in open-seat primaries in safe Republican districts. The two groups have previously clashed in primaries where the Club for Growth promoted candidates who were farther to the right than those endorsed by the CLF. The agreement could give hard-right candidates a better chance at a primary victory, clearing the way for them to join the House after winning relatively easy general elections.

In the face of Republican division, Democrats have remained united in backing their newly chosen leader. On each of the first six ballots, Jeffries won the support of all 212 members of the Democratic caucus, making him the top vote-getter in the speakership election so far.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Jeffries implored Republicans to reach a consensus for the sake of the nation.