Needed to win: Majority of votes cast First ballot: 434 votes cast, 218 needed for a majority Fifteenth ballot: 428 votes cast, 215 needed for a majority
Republicans won a narrow majority of House seats over the Democratic Party in the 2022 elections. McCarthy won the nomination within the Republican conference but faced public opposition from far-right House Republicans before the vote.[8][9][10] The opposition consisted mainly of members of the Freedom Caucus.[11] With 19 Republicans voting for candidates other than McCarthy on the first ballot, no candidate achieved a majority and the election proceeded to additional ballots for the first time since 1923.[12] In the first round of voting, House Democratic Caucus leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York received 212 votes, McCarthy received 203 votes, and Andy Biggs of Arizona received 10 votes; other candidates who were not formally nominated received 9 votes.[13]
On the second through the fourteenth votes, McCarthy again failed to receive a majority of votes cast. Jeffries received the support of all Democrats present on each ballot.[14] Most or all of the Republican opposition voted for Jim Jordan of Ohio on the second and third rounds and Byron Donalds of Florida on the fourth through eleventh rounds.[15]Kevin Hern of Oklahoma and former president Donald Trump were also nominated and received votes in various rounds. On the fourth day of voting, January 6, many of the Republicans who opposed McCarthy began voting for him following negotiations between rounds. On the fifteenth and final ballot, the six remaining anti-McCarthy holdouts voted "present", which reduced the threshold of votes needed for a majority from 218 to 215, thus allowing McCarthy to be elected with 216 votes.[3]
^Tomasky, Michael (January 3, 2023). "Get Ready for the Most Chaotic, Do-Nothingest Congress in Modern History". The New Republic. ISSN0028-6583. Archived from the original on January 7, 2023. Retrieved January 7, 2023. Today [January 3, 2023] marks the opening of the new session of the Congress of the United States of America, a ritual convening that goes all the way back to March 4, 1789, when the 26 senators and the 65 members of the House of Representatives who made up that 1st legislative session began our great democratic tradition, those 234 years ago.