Lack of Republican consensus leads US House to unprecedented deadlock in 100 years

There was no one who woke up calmly in the high leadership of the Republican Party this Tuesday (3), and what was supposed to be a victory ended up becoming a headache in the corridors of power in Washington.

With the inauguration of the new US Congress, elected in the legislative elections that took place in November, the midterms, the Republican Party regained its majority in the House of Representatives after four years. The change means a significant increase in opposition to Democratic President Joe Biden, who until now had control of both Houses in Congress.

Due to the new composition of the Legislature, there was also a new election for president of the Chamber, one of the most powerful positions in the country, second in the presidential line of succession, behind only the vice president, Kamala Harris. But for the first time in a hundred years, the ruling party in the House failed to form consensus around a name, and no one was elected on the first ballot.

The main Republican candidate for the post is Kevin McCarthy, 57, congressman from California, but, with strong opposition from the most radical wing of the party, he did not reach the necessary 218 votes in the first round. He got 203 supporters, and 19 Republicans voted for other candidates.

The lack of consensus on the choice blocks the agenda in the Chamber, and deputies will need to vote as many times as necessary until the new president is chosen. The last time a head of the House was not elected on the first ballot was in 1923, when the selection of a Republican took nine rounds. In 1849, there were 60 votes to reach a consensus, and, in 1856, the Chamber stopped for two months because no candidate could reach a majority.

McCarthy is the current leader of the Republican group of deputies, and, therefore, his victory was taken for granted months ago. But this Tuesday’s stalemate is a direct result of the midterms, in which a far superior performance from the members of his legend was expected than what actually happened. The Republican Party now has 222 seats out of the 435 in the House, just four more than the minimum needed to win a majority of 218, making the margin for dissent minimal.

He was challenged internally by Andy Biggs of Arizona, former head of the Freedom Caucus, the far-right wing of the Republican Party. Shortly after voting began, Biggs won the minimum five votes needed to stop McCarthy, sending the election to a new round.

The lack of definition until the last minute shows the state of mind of the Republican Party, divided between radical supporters of former President Donald Trump and those who advocate leaving him behind.

It is a visible contrast to the Democrats. The election of Hakeem Jeffries as the new leader of the party, in November, to succeed the powerful Nancy Pelosi, was not disputed. This Tuesday, as expected, the 212 elected Democrats voted for Jeffries for Speaker of the House – which would not materialize, since the party does not have a majority. There is also no other name strong enough today among Democrats to challenge a bid for re-election by Biden, who will be almost 82 years old in the next election.

Republicans, on the other hand, do not even have consensus to elect a leader to the already guaranteed post of Speaker of the House. McCarthy, however, does not intend to withdraw his name from the list and so far does not have an opponent capable of beating him in the House. Born in California, he was first elected to the House in 2006 and quickly rose to prominence in domestic politics. At the beginning of his career, he was seen as a representative of the moderate youth wing, the “young guns”, and even launched a book with that title, calling for more bipartisan consensus to advance important agendas for the country.

During the Trump administration, however, he moved closer to the conservative agenda and became a strong ally of the president. Days after the 2020 election, still during the calculation, he even told Fox News that the Republican had won, before the official result pointed to Democrat Joe Biden as the winner. “President Trump won this election, so everyone listening, don’t be quiet,” he said.

The tide turned following the invasion of the Capitol, when a crowd inflated by Trump tried to forcibly prevent confirmation of Biden’s victory. McCarthy turned against the then president and, in private conversations leaked to the press, even asked for his resignation. From the lectern of the House he gave a tough speech, in which he said that Trump was “responsible for the attack” and that the then president “should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was happening”.

This is one of the main reasons why the party’s radicalized group fears that it will not be faithful to Trump’s ideals. Politically skilled, however, the leader knew how to read the scenario and got closer to the former president, even throwing his former right-hand man, Liz Cheney —who voted for the republican’s impeachment and was a member of the congressional commission that investigated January 6 — into the fire.

To try to get around the dissent, McCarthy began to nod to the radical wing of the party and promised to open a series of investigations against the Biden administration, from the impeachment request of the Secretary of Homeland Security for the immigration crisis on the border with Mexico to the withdrawal of American troops. from Afghanistan, passing through the businesses of one of the president’s sons, Hunter Biden. He also nodded to the more ideological wings by promising to investigate what he sees as limitations on free speech by technology companies and what he calls indoctrination in schools.

But so far that hasn’t been necessary to overcome resistance to him, as Biggs’s candidacy and Freedom Caucus votes on Tuesday showed.

Other names pop up on the betting exchanges if McCarthy proves unviable. The clearest so far is Steve Scalise, deputy from Louisiana and now number 2 in the Republican Party in the House.