U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy from California was elected speaker of the House on Saturday morning after failing to win support of enough fellow Republicans in 14 rounds of voting. Among the holdouts were Arizona Republicans Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar.
McCarthy won the speaker’s gavel in his 15th round of voting. Jim Heath is a political analyst.
“I don’t know what the Arizona coalition really wanted. I know that a handful of them voted for Biggs for speaker, but that was, of course, never going to happen," he said.
Gosar voted directly for McCarthy in the final round, while Biggs voted in abstention.
