January 3, 2023 Latest on the new Congress and House speaker vote

Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy failed to win a majority for the House speakership on the first ballot amid opposition from his own party. The vote is poised to go to a second ballot for the first time in 100 years.

The tally of the first vote for McCarthy was 203. Another 19 Republicans voted for other candidates 

"Vote again," that’s the plan, according to a source familiar with the next steps.

If another ballot is needed after that, it is not clear if Congress will recess the chamber or if members will continue voting.

Remember: McCarthy does not technically need 218 votes to become speaker. A majority of those present and voting is required to get the speakership, which is usually 218 lawmakers. But if enough people skip the vote or vote “present,” the number of votes required for a majority can drop. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was elected with 216 votes in 2021.

Here is a look at the first ballot vote:

CNN's Manu Raju contributed reporting to this post.

Republicans seem to be lying to themselves in thinking that "nurturing and feeding the MAGA wing" is helping grow the party, CNN's Abby Phillip said.

"What's striking to me is he has not really taken them on and if you listen to Elise Stefanik's nominating speech for Kevin McCarthy she was touting that they had grown their majority — yeah they grew their majority probably, mostly, because of redistricting. They were supposed to have done so much better," Phillip explained.

Republicans now only hold a narrow majority in the House and that is the main reason why today's House leadership vote is relying on margins, she said.

Watch the moment here:

The vote for House speaker has not officially been gaveled yet.

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy briefly went to the cloakroom when members were done voting and now is back on the floor talking to members.

Members he spoke to included Tom Cole, Tim Burchett and Mike Turner.

Charile Dent, a former Republican congressman, said that he doesn't see a clear path for Rep. Kevin McCarthy to win the House speakership as he appears to suffer a defeat on the first speaker ballot.

"What can he give these folks that he hasn't already tried to give them? I don't think there's anything he can give them. It will never be enough. It seems so personal. They don't — they just don't want him so I don't think there's anything he can do. No concession he can make. There's no more appeasement that he can do to win some of these folks over."

A GOP source who is not in the Freedom Caucus told CNN: “I just don't know how he gets there. They (Freedom Caucus) smell blood. He gave in to demand after demand, none of it was enough. In fact, he lost votes. These folks don’t want to get to yes.” 

CNN's Jamie Gangel contributed reporting to this post.

Watch the video:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell celebrated becoming the longest serving party leader — of either party — in Senate history on Tuesday.

He has now surpassed former Sen. Mike Mansfield, a Democrat from Montana, who was the record holder.  

This comes as the 118th Congress across both chambers is being sworn in on Tuesday.

Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy remains defiant in the face of opposition, with people close to him summing up his mentality as he vies for the House speakership as: “We’re going to war,” a senior GOP source tells CNN.

After McCarthy made concession after concession to the right flank, he is done negotiating— now his strategy is to grind down his opponents by staying in the race for as many ballots as it take, the source added. 

If McCarthy does not secure enough votes the first ballot, lawmakers will continue voting until someone wins the majority. They can take successive votes, but the House does not kick off the new Congress until a speaker is elected.

The feeling in McCarthy’s camp is that this fight with the Freedom Caucus — which forced him to drop out of speaker’s race in 2015 before it went to a vote — has been a long time coming, and now it’s time for everyone to put their cards on the table. 

For the first time in 100 years, the vote for House speaker is going to a second ballot.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy didn’t get the votes he needed on the first vote Tuesday afternoon, and fellow Republican Andy Biggs was nominated in opposition.

Meanwhile, Democrats nominated New York’s Hakeem Jeffries to lead the party’s minority in the chamber. He will become the first Black lawmaker to lead a party in Congress.

No matter how they resolve Tuesday’s vote choosing the next speaker of the House, Republicans appear poised to double down on the hard-edged politics that most swing state voters rejected in last November’s midterm election.

Stubborn conservative resistance to House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy has put the party at risk of precipitating the first speakership election that extends to more than a single ballot since 1923 – and only the second since the Civil War.

But even if McCarthy ultimately prevails after another round, the show of strength from the GOP’s conservative vanguard has ensured it enormous leverage in shaping the party’s legislative and investigative agenda. And that could reinforce the image of extremism that hurt Republicans in the midterm election, especially in the key swing states likely to decide the next presidential contest – Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia and Arizona.

Whoever Republicans ultimately select as speaker “will be subject to the whims and the never-ending leveraging of a small group of members who want to wield power,” said former GOP Rep. Charlie Dent, a CNN political commentator. “You’re going to have this group on the far right that is going to continue to push the leadership to go further right on issues.”

Tuesday’s vote may create a kind of drama that was common in the House during the 19th century but has virtually disappeared since. Before the Civil War, when party allegiances were more fluid, the House failed to elect a speaker on the first ballot 13 times, according to the House historian’s office. The most arduous struggles occurred in roughly the decade before the Civil War, as the existing party system crumbled under the pressure of the escalating conflict between the North and South, and the newly formed Republican Party supplanted the Whigs as the major competitor to the Democrats, then the dominant party. One speakership election during that tumultuous decade required 133 ballots (and two months of balloting) to resolve; the final speaker selection before the Civil War began took 44 ballots.

Read the full analysis here.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy is on track to fall short of a majority to win House leadership on a first ballot, and the speaker vote is poised to go to a second ballot for the first time in 100 years.

The roll call vote is still underway.

To be elected speaker, a candidate needs to win a majority of members who vote for a specific person on the House floor. That amounts to 218 votes if no member skips the vote or votes “present.”

CNN's Clare Foran, Melanie Zanona, Annie Grayer and Kristin Wilson contributed reporting to this post.