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Raúl Grijalva says U.S. House speaker stalemate shows Republicans 'not ready to govern'

Republicans won back a narrow majority in the U.S. House in November, but they’ve been unable to unite this week to elect a House Speaker. That means no one has been sworn in and the business of government is at a standstill.

Congressional Republicans Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs of Arizona are among the far-right leaders within the party who are opposing frontrunner Kevin McCarthy of California.

Arizona Congressman Raúl Grijalva has been watching the infighting from the other side of the aisle.

"If they’re going to make it a fundamental ideological fight among themselves, the ability to get things done is going to become more and more difficult," Grijalva said. "Like it or not, the majority’s not ready to govern."

The stalemate marks the first time in a century that the House has been pushed to multiple rounds of voting in attempts to elect a speaker.

Lindsey Collom Riley is assistant news director at KJZZ. She joined the team as a senior editor June 2022 after more than two decades of reporting and editing for print/digital news in metro Phoenix.