The Republican who is the leading candidate to replace outgoing US Speaker Nancy Pelosi has embarrassingly failed to secure enough votes from his own political party.
In what’s looming as a brutal showdown within the Republican party, Kevin McCarthy lost three rounds of voting as hardline conservatives rebelled against him.
Hardliners, who represent less than one-tenth of the Republican party caucus, did not back Mr McCarthy with the overwhelming majority of House Republicans.
Mr McCarthy three times fell short of the 218-vote majority needed to succeed Democrat Nancy Pelosi as Speaker.
It was the first time in a century that the House failed to elect a Speaker on the first vote.
The House of Representatives adjourned for the day without electing a new Speaker.
Mr McCarthy had served as the House minority leader and sought to become Speaker, a position second in the line of succession to the US presidency, only to draw strong opposition from his party’s right flank.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries outran Mr McCarthy on the first two ballots by 212 to 203 votes, as 19 Republicans opted for different candidates.
A majority of those voting, not a plurality, is needed to determine a Speaker.
In the second vote, popular conservative Representative Jim Jordan sought to rally support for California Republican McCarthy, only to find himself put forward as a nominee by McCarthy opponent Matt Gaetz of Florida.
“We need to rally around him,” Mr Jordan had said in an impassioned speech on the House floor.
“I think Kevin McCarthy’s the right guy to lead us.”
Mr Jordan, 58, is a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump and a co-founder of the conservative House Freedom Caucus.
A former college wrestler who represents a congressional district in Ohio, Jordan had been floated as a possible alternative candidate for Speaker but instead supported Mr McCarthy while preparing to oversee the House Judiciary Committee’s investigation of the Justice Department and FBI under President Joe Biden.
It was a disconcerting start to the new majority for Mr McCarthy and highlights the challenges Republicans could face in the next two years, heading into the 2024 presidential election.
Republicans won a narrow 222-212 majority in November’s midterm election, meaning that Mr McCarthy — or any candidate for speaker — will need to unify a fractious caucus to win the gavel.
Democrats hold a slim majority in the Senate.
A protracted Speaker election could undermine House Republican hopes of moving forward quickly on priorities including investigations of Biden’s administration and family and legislative priorities involving the economy, US energy independence and border security.
A stand-off would leave the House largely paralysed and could force lawmakers to consider other candidates such as incoming Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Mr Jordan.
Any Republican Speaker will have the tough task of managing a House Republican caucus moving ever rightward, with uncompromising tendencies and — at least among some lawmakers — close allegiances to Donald Trump.
The vote marked the first time in 100 years that a nominee has not succeeded to the House speakership on the first ballot.
The record number of voting rounds to elect a House speaker is 133 over a two-month period in the 1850s.
The Democrats picked Jeffries to serve as minority leader after Ms Pelosi, the first woman to serve as speaker, announced that she would step down from her leadership role.
She will remain in office as a representative.
