Here are the 19 Republicans Who Voted Against McCarthy
Right-wing Republicans were demanding specific concessions from the would-be House Speaker.
On Tuesday, 19 Republicans in the U.S. Congress voted to deny their own party’s leader, California Congressman Kevin McCarthy, the speakership of the U.S. House of Representatives, necessitating the need for a second ballot for the first time in 100 years.
Without a Speaker of the House, the lower chamber of Congress cannot operate, as committee assignments and rules packages are delayed. McCarthy was reportedly trying to make concessions regarding rules and how the House would be run prior to the vote, but those were apparently deemed insufficient by members.
Among the provisions that McCarthy floated was reviving a “motion to vacate,” which would have allowed any five members of the U.S. House to depose the speaker and replace them with another (which would have to be approved by majority vote). Some of the Republican defectors had argued, prior to Tuesday, that the threshold for the motion to vacate should be reduced to a single member of Congress.
The last time the House failed to elect a speaker on the first ballot was in 1923, requiring nine ballots before U.S. Rep. Frederick Huntington Gillett (R-Mass.) was elected.
McCarthy ultimately lost the speakership vote, gaining only 203 votes, compared to New York Democratic Congressman Hakeem Jeffries’ 212 votes.
If Republicans did not wish to vote for McCarthy, a small number could have voted “present,” thereby lowering McCarthy’s needed number of votes below the current threshold of 218 needed to elect a speaker. However, no members of Congress exercised that option.
The 19 Republicans voting against McCarthy largely picked members of the far-right Freedom Caucus for their choice as speaker. Those members are listed below.
Republicans voting for Arizona Congressman Andy Biggs:
- Andy Biggs (Ariz.)
- Dan Bishop (N.C.)
- Andrew Clyde (Ga.)
- Eli Crane (Ariz.)
- Matt Gaetz (Fla.)
- Bob Good (Va.)
- Paul Gosar (Ariz.)
- Ralph Norman (S.C.)
- Scott Perry (Pa.)
- Matt Rosendale (Mont.)
Republicans voting for Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan:
- Lauren Boebert (Colo.)
- Mike Cloud (Texas)
- Anna Paulina Luna (Fla.)
- Mary Miller (Ill.)
- Andy Ogles (Tenn.)
- Keith Self (Texas)
Republicans voting for Indiana Congressman Jim Banks:
- Josh Brecheen (Okla.)
Republicans voting for Florida Congressman Byron Donalds:
- Chip Roy (Texas)
Republicans voting for former New York Congressman Lee Zeldin:
- Andy Harris (Md.)
With no candidate for Speaker gaining a majority of those present, the voting now heads to a second ballot.
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