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

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. 

The Senate has now been sworn in. This includes all senators who were elected and reelected during the midterm elections in November.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday that “today marks the beginning of the 118th Congress. It’s the start of a new chapter.”

Schumer celebrated that he’s now the longest serving senator from New York. He also congratulated GOP Leader Mitch McConnell on “now becoming the longest serving party leader in the history of this chamber.” 

Democrats secured a slim 51-49 majority over Republicans in the chamber in the midterms.

Vice President Kamala Harris became the first woman to preside over the opening day of the US Senate when she swore in 35 either newly elected or reelected senators on Tuesday.

As president of the Senate, Harris administered the oath of office to four senators at a time. She greeted most who approached the desk with a handshake before prompting the lawmakers to raise their right hand —including Democrat John Fetterman who flipped his Pennsylvania seat in November.

Harris’ mic was audible several times during small talk with the clerk and lawmakers in between the oaths. At one point, she told Sens. Eric Schmitt, Chuck Schumer, Tim Scott and John Thune, “You all belong, that’s the beauty of our democracy.”

In another exchange, she jokingly told senators to “take this seriously,” after she incorrectly prompted the group to repeat after her.

The House is voting now on a new speaker. Democrats placed their party leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries’ name into nomination, and Republicans placed Kevin McCarthy’s name.

Republican Rep. Andy Biggs is also expected to garner several votes in the first round. 

How the vote works: Each member, when their name is called, will state the name of the person they are voting for. It can be one of the names in nomination, their own name, someone else’s name, or present, which is not a vote at all. 

The tellers will tally up the votes. The winner must have a majority of those voting for a person. Present votes subtract from that total, thus lowering the threshold for a majority of votes. 

If no one amasses a majority of votes cast, it goes to a second ballot, and on and on. If it goes to multiple ballots, other candidates may have their names put in for nomination. 

What could happen next: If McCarthy doesn’t get the votes on the first ballot, there is the option to make a motion to adjourn, but it would take 218 votes to do that and Democrats likely not inclined to help Republicans out in any way.

There is no playbook for what the chamber will do if the speaker isn’t elected on the first ballot. The 1923 vote was decided on the ninth ballot, where they kept voting until a speaker was decided. The 1869 speaker vote lasted through 60 ballots over two months.

This Congress may recess the chamber or they could continue voting. 

But no other House business can be done until this vote is finished, including swearing in of the rest of the members. Until the speaker’s vote is decided, the clerk of the House is in charge of the chamber.

Sen. Patty Murray was elected on Tuesday to be President Pro Tempore, which puts her third in line of presidential succession after the vice president and speaker of the House.

Murray, a Democrat from Washington, made history as the first woman to hold this position.  

The position is typically occupied by the senior most member of the majority party. California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who has more seniority to Murray, passed on the job. 

Vice President Kamala Harris swore the Washington Democrat into the role on Tuesday.

While most members of Congress were socializing with one another on the first day of the new Congress, Rep.-elect George Santos sat alone looking at his phone on the House floor. 

This comes as the embattled New York Republican faces a federal probe into his finances and mounting scrutiny and condemnation over lies about his biography. 

Some Democrats have called on Santos to step aside after the Republican admitted to fabricating parts of his resume, including his work experience and education. A few Republicans have also rebuked Santos, and at least one of his fellow incoming House Republicans from New York called for him to face an ethics investigation.

Santos faces questions about other key parts of his biography – including a claim that has been contradicted that his grandparents survived the Holocaust — and over loans totaling more than $700,000 that he made to his 2022 campaign.

The federal probe into his finances, which CNN reported on last week, is being undertaken by the US attorney’s office in the Eastern District of New York.