WASHINGTON—Chaos walked into the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday and made itself home as members of the new Republican majority rejected House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s bid to become speaker, but then failed to settle on an alternative candidate.
In the first vote of a tumultuous first day of the 118th Congress, McCarthy, the California Republican who led the party to regain the majority in the November 2022 mid-term election, fell 15 votes short of the 218 he needed to become Speaker of the House.
McCarthy received 203 votes from Republican colleagues, while 212 Democrats voted for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who will serve as House Minority Leader in 2023. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz), the leader of the anti-McCarthy members, received 10 votes. A handful of Republicans voted for candidates who were not nominated….