The House of Representatives of the United States has voted on Wednesday night to postpone the session for the election of the president of the body until Thursday at noon, after the Republican leader Kevin McCarthy did not obtain the necessary majority in six votes.
McCarthy, who has failed to get the necessary 218 votes in six rounds of voting between Tuesday and Wednesday, had declared that he did not want a seventh ballot tonight, claiming that no agreement has yet been reached, despite that there is progress, since legislators have met behind closed doors.
“I think it’s probably for the best: let people work a little more. I don’t think tonight’s vote will do anything different, but I think the future vote will,” the Republican representative said in statements to journalists, collected by the CNN television network.
Republicans are therefore trying to strategize in the House of Representatives in an attempt to win over the group of 20 conservative lawmakers who oppose McCarthy’s election.
Despite the negotiations and the support of his main ally, former President Donald Trump, the Republican leader has obtained 201 votes, while the Democratic candidate Hakeem Jeffries has obtained 212 votes. The 20 most conservative Republicans in the Republican Party have voted in favor of candidate Byron Donalds.