Kevin McCarthy was named as the new speaker of the US House of Representatives on Saturday, ending days of bitter Republican infighting that ground the lower chamber of Congress to a standstill.
The 57-year-old Californian needed a simple majority to be elected as Washington’s top legislator, who presides over House business and is second in line to the presidency.
But it became the longest speakership election in 160 years as the deeply-divided Republicans took 15 rounds of voting over four days to fend off a right-wing, anti-McCarthy rebellion.
In a major shift, McCarthy and his allies successfully flipped more than a dozen GOP votes into his column Friday afternoon – the first sign of serious momentum in support of his speaker bid after a series of failed votes over the course of multiple days.
