Former Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday backed Rep. Kevin McCarthy for the House speaker role as the 118th Congress remains without a leader in the lower chamber.
McCarthy, R-Calif., has lost three rounds of voting. The House is unable to fully function without electing a speaker.
The opposition to McCarthy is being led by conservative members who believe that he’s not combative enough or conservative enough to take on the Democrats.
The lawmaker is still optimistic about winning the speaker gavel and on Tuesday night described a path to the speakership with a lower vote threshold.
"You're sitting at 202 votes, so you need technically just 11 more votes to win," McCarthy said, according to The Hill.
"Democrats have 212 votes. You get 213 votes, and the others don't say another name, that's how you can win. You can win with 218. You could win with 222. But if you want to look at how you have to go about doing it."
All 434 members voted in the three rounds Tuesday, setting the majority at 218 votes.
McCarthy got 203 votes and House Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries got 212 in the first and second ballots. Those opposed to McCarthy voted for other candidates. A 20th member joined the "Never Kevin" group in the third vote, bringing McCarthy down to 202.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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