Tremors in the US House of Representatives
Republican McCarthy fails in chief post election in the first ballot
01/03/2023, 7:55 p.m
Republicans regain control of the US House of Representatives in November. But the distribution of seats is conceivable and the Republican faction leader is not without controversy. Kevin McCarthy surprisingly fails in the vote on the future Speaker of the Chamber of Congress.
Republican Kevin McCarthy lost the first round of voting to be elected speaker of the US House of Representatives. The 57-year-old received only 203 of the 218 required votes. 19 members of the Republican party thus voted for another candidate. It is the first time since 1923 that the Democratic or Republican majority leader has not won the first ballot.
The Republicans wrested control of the House of Representatives from the Democrats during the so-called Midterms. However, the result was much tighter than expected: the Conservatives will in future have a majority of 222 of the 435 MPs, the Democrats won 213 seats. Their nominee for the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, received 212 votes.
In the Senate, the Democrats were able to defend and even expand their slim majority in the elections last November: they will in future make up 51 of the 100 senators.