Politics

The changed votes from conservative holdouts, including the chairman of the chamber’s Freedom Caucus, put McCarthy closer to seizing the gavel for the new Congress — but not yet able.

The stunning turnaround came after McCarthy agreed to many of the detractors’ demands — including the reinstatement of a longstanding House rule that would allow any single member to call a vote to oust him from office. That change and others mean the job he has fought so hard to gain will be weakened.

After McCarthy won the most votes for the first time on the 12th ballot, a 13th was swiftly launched, this time, just between McCarthy and the Democratic leader, with no nominated Republican challenger to siphon GOP votes away. But six GOP holdouts still cast their ballots for unnominated others, denying him the majority needed.

The showdown that has stymied the new Congress came against the backdrop of the second anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, which shook the country when a mob of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters tried to stop Congress from certifying the Republican’s 2020 election defeat to Democrat Joe Biden.

A few minutes before voting began in the House chamber, Republicans tiring of the spectacle walked out when one of McCarthy’s most ardent challengers railed against the GOP leader.

“We do not trust Mr. McCarthy with power,” said Republican Matt Gaetz of Florida, as colleagues streamed out of the chamber in protest of his remarks.

But an upbeat McCarthy told reporters as he arrived at the Capitol Friday morning, “We’re going to make progress. We’re going to shock you.”

One significant former holdout, Republican Scott Perry, chairman of the conservative Freedom Caucus, tweeted after his switched vote for McCarthy: “We’re at a turning point.”

But several holdouts remained. The final 12th vote tally: McCarthy, 213 votes; Democrat Hakeem Jeffries 211. Other Republcans Jim Jordan and Kevin Hern picked up protest votes. With 431 members voting, McCarthy was still a few votes short of a majority.

When Rep. Mike Garcia nominated McCarthy for a 12th time, he also thanked the U.S. Capitol Police who were given a standing ovation for protecting lawmakers and the legislative seat of democracy on Jan. 6.

The chamber is unable swear in members and begin its 2023-24 session. McCarthy told lawmakers there were no plans to adjourn for the weekend, one Republican said, but it might be difficult to keep them in town.

So far Republicans have been unable to settle on a new speaker — normally an easy, joyous task for a party that has just won majority control. But not this time: About 200 Republicans have been stymied by 20 far-right colleagues who said he’s not conservative enough.

Even if McCarthy is able to secure the votes he needs, he will emerge as a weakened speaker, having given away some powers, leaving him constantly under threat of being voted out by his detractors. But he would also be potentially emboldened as a survivor of one of the more brutal fights for the gavel in U.S. history.

At the core of the emerging deal is the reinstatement of a House rule that would allow a single lawmaker to make a motion to “vacate the chair,” essentially calling a vote to oust the speaker. McCarthy had resisted allowing a return to the longstanding rule that former Speaker Nancy Pelosi had done away with, because it had been held over the head of past Republican Speaker John Boehner, chasing him to early retirement. But it appears he had no other choice.

Other wins for the holdouts include provisions in the proposed deal to expand the number of seats available on the House Rules Committee, to mandate 72 hours for bills to be posted before votes and to promise to try for a constitutional amendment that would impose federal limits on the number of terms a person could serve in the House and Senate.

Lest hopes get ahead of reality, conservative holdout Ralph Norman of South Carolina said: “This is round one.”

It could be the makings of a deal to end a standoff that has left the House unable to fully function. Members have not been sworn in and almost no other business can happen. A memo sent out by the House’s chief administrative officer Thursday evening said that committees “shall only carry-out core Constitutional responsibilities.” Payroll cannot be processed if the House isn’t functioning by Jan. 13.

After a long week of failed votes, Thursday’s tally was dismal: McCarthy lost seventh, eighth and then historic ninth, 10th and 11th rounds of voting, surpassing the number from 100 years ago in the last drawn-out fight to choose a speaker.

The California Republican exited the chamber and quipped about the moment: “Apparently, I like to make history.”

Feelings of boredom, desperation and annoyance seemed increasingly evident.

Democrats said it was time to get serious. “This sacred House of Representatives needs a leader,” said Democrat Joe Neguse of Colorado, nominating his own party’s leader, Hakeem Jeffries, as speaker.

Democratic leader Jeffries of New York won the most votes on every ballot but also remained short of a majority. McCarthy ran second, gaining no ground.

Pressure has grown with each passing day for McCarthy to somehow find the votes he needs or step aside. The incoming Republican chairmen of the House’s Foreign Affairs, Armed Services and Intelligence committees all said national security was at risk.

Republican Party holdouts repeatedly put forward the name of Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, ensuring continuation of the stalemate that increasingly carried undercurrents of race and politics. They also put forward Republican Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, splitting the protest vote.

Donalds, who is Black, is seen as an emerging party leader and a GOP counterpoint to the Democratic leader, Jeffries, who is the first Black leader of a major political party in the U.S. Congress and on track himself to become speaker some day.

Ballots kept producing almost the same outcome with 20 conservative holdouts still refusing to support McCarthy, leaving him far short of the 218 typically needed to win the gavel.

In fact, McCarthy saw his support slip to 201, as one fellow Republican switched to vote simply “present,” and later to 200. With just a 222-seat GOP majority, he could not spare votes.

The disorganized start to the new Congress pointed to difficulties ahead with Republicans now in control of the House, much the way that some past Republican speakers, including Boehner, had trouble leading a rebellious right flank. The result: government shutdowns, standoffs and Boehner’s early retirement.

The longest fight for the gavel started in late 1855 and dragged on for two months, with 133 ballots, during debates over slavery in the run-up to the Civil War.

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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — New data from Pennsylvania’s elections agency shows an early November state court decision that barred mail-in ballots without accurate handwritten dates on their exterior envelopes resulted in otherwise valid votes being thrown out.

The Department of State said this week more than 16,000 mail-in ballots were disqualified by county officials because they lacked secrecy envelopes or proper signatures or dates. Democratic voters, who are much more likely to vote by mail, made up more than two-thirds of the total canceled ballots.

The agency said 8,250 Pennsylvania mail-in ballots were rejected because they were sent in without being contained within a secrecy envelope, making it impossible for them to be tabulated without putting voter privacy at risk.

The remaining 7,904 invalidated ballots were tossed out because the exterior envelopes used to send in those ballots did not have the voters’ signatures, or because those exterior envelopes were either undated or improperly dated.

Many counties, but not all, worked with voters to “cure” undated ballots. Those fixed ballots were counted and are not among the number of rejected ballots now being reported by the Department of State.

Some people whose mail-in ballots were thrown out in the high-stakes November election may not be aware that happened.

“In many counties, voters who provide their email address when applying for a mail ballot automatically receive email notifications with status updates on their ballot, including whether their ballot was canceled,” Department of State spokesperson Ellen Lyon said in an email. “There is no similar automatic notification system for voters who do not provide an email address when applying for a mail ballot.”

Pennsylvania Democrats flipped Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey’s seat this fall, elected Attorney General Josh Shapiro as governor and won just enough state House races to retake majority control by one vote.

But the Democrats’ much greater use of mail-in voting also meant they saw far more of their votes disqualified than did Republicans, independents and third party voters combined. Democrats had 10,920 votes thrown out, about half for lacking secrecy envelopes. Republicans saw 3,503 ballots forfeited. Independents and third parties amounted to 1,731 votes that did not count in the fall election.

Negotiations between Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and Republican legislative leaders about ending the exterior envelope date requirement failed because the sides could not reach agreement on a wider bill to address a host of election procedures and policy changes. The exterior envelope dates are not needed to ensure ballots arrive in time — that occurs when they are received and clocked in by county elections workers.

Republican lawmakers have defended the need for the requirements, saying they are important for security and secrecy.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in May that the dates were not required — calling them “immaterial” — but the U.S. Supreme Court then ruled that decision moot.

Other federal litigation against the secretary of state and county elections boards over the inaccurate or missing envelope dates remains pending. It claims enforcing the date requirement has a larger impact on voters who are “significantly older than both other Pennsylvanians who voted by mail and all registered Pennsylvania voters.”

In the governor’s race, Shapiro collected just over 1 million mail-in votes, about a third of his total, on his way to a nearly 15-point win over Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano, whose received more than 187,000 mail-in ballots. There were fewer than 19,000 third-party or independent mail-in votes in the gubernatorial race.

Marian Schneider, senior voting rights policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, said state law needs more clarity about the process of curing flawed ballots so more voters’ choices will count. The total number may be a small portion of total votes cast, but they could determine the winner of a close race.

“It’s still 16,000 people whose votes didn’t count,” Schneider said. “It would be good to avoid that, right?”

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled a week before the November election that mail-in votes may not count if they are “contained in undated or incorrectly dated outer envelopes.” Ballots without properly dated envelopes have been the topic of litigation since mail-in voting was greatly expanded in Pennsylvania under a 2019 state law.

The justices had split 3-3 on whether making the envelope dates mandatory under state law would violate provisions of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964, which states that immaterial errors or omissions should not be used to prevent voting. The tie meant the date mandate has remained in place. The court has yet to issue a written opinion laying out its reasoning and explaining why it ordered county officials to “segregate and preserve” the canceled ballots.

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ST. LOUIS (AP) — Two years to the day since U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley’s now-famous raised-fist salute to rioters at the U.S. Capitol, a Marine veteran who ran unsuccessfully for Senate in 2022 announced Friday that he’ll try to unseat Hawley in 2024.

Lucas Kunce, 40, served 13 years in the Marines. A video released by his campaign shows the photo of Hawley with his fist raised on Jan. 6, 2021 — a photo that drew strong criticism from some, but also appears on coffee mugs that the senator sells. Kunce’s video also shows security camera footage of Hawley running through the Capitol hallway in the chaotic aftermath of the attack.

“I swear, this coward’s always running from something,” Kunce says in the video. “When things get tough, Missourians deserve a U.S. senator who will stand up for them, not run away.”

Kyle Plotkin, a spokesman for the Hawley campaign, dismissed the Kunce announcement.

“We welcome this desperate woke activist to yet another political race,” Plotkin said in an email. “He just barely finished losing his last one. Maybe he’s running in the wrong state.”

Kunce was among several candidates running for Senate in 2022 after two-term incumbent Roy Blunt announced his plans to retire, and seemed headed for the Democratic nomination before the late entry of Anheuser-Busch brewing heir Trudy Busch Valentine. She narrowly defeated Kunce in the August primary, then was soundly defeated by Republican Eric Schmitt in November.

Kunce faces long odds in 2024. Missouri, a swing state a generation ago, has moved decidedly to the right over the past decade. Every statewide elected official in Missouri is now a Republican.

Kunce did show significant fundraising skills last year, outraising every candidate, even Republicans. He fashioned himself as a populist and his campaign announcement for 2024 cited his military history and his family’s financial hardships when he grew up in Jefferson City.

Hawley, 43, is in his first term as senator. He was elected Missouri attorney general in 2016 before successfully running for Senate in 2018.

The week before the attack on the U.S. Capitol two years ago, Hawley became the first Republican senator to announce he would object to the certification of the 2020 presidential election. After the release of the photo showing him with his fist raised, a one-time mentor, former U.S. Sen. John Danforth of Missouri, called supporting Hawley “the worst decision I’ve ever made in my life.”

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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Federal judges ordered South Carolina lawmakers to draw new congressional maps, ruling Friday that the U.S. House district lines of a seat flipped by Democrats four years ago were intentionally redrawn to split Black neighborhoods to dilute their voting power.

The state used the maps in this past November’s midterm elections after the Republican-dominated state Legislature redrew the lines earlier this year following the 2020 U.S. Census.

Friday’s ruling said the coastal 1st District running from Charleston to Hilton Head Island was drawn to remove Black voters and make it a safer seat for Republicans.

The judges requested state lawmakers pass new U.S. House maps by the end of March. They said no elections can take place in the 1st District until it is redrawn.

South Carolina House Speaker Murrell Smith said he anticipated the decision would be appealed. “I maintain that the House drew maps without racial bias and in the best interest of all the people of this state,” the Republican said in a statement.

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace currently represents the 1st District. She beat Joe Cunningham in 2020 after Cunningham became the first Democrat to flip a U.S. House seat in South Carolina in 30 years.

Mace won by just over 1 percentage point in 2020. But after the district was redrawn, she won by 14 percentage points in November.

After the new congressional maps were approved, civil rights groups swiftly filed a lawsuit charging the state Legislature with choosing “perhaps the worst option of the available maps” for Black voters.

The judges requested state lawmakers pass new U.S. House maps by the end of March. They said no elections can take place in the 1st District until it is redrawn.

The judges ruled that to make the 1st District safer for Republicans, GOP legislative leaders who drew the new maps pulled Black voters out of the 1st District and placed them into the 6th District, which is the only one represented by a Democrat and was redrawn three decades ago to have a majority of minority voters.

The 6th District stretches through a large swath of rural South Carolina into Columbia, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from Charleston.

The judges wrote in their ruling that Will Roberts, who drew the maps, used race to achieve the partisan goal of making the 1st District safer for Republicans, which is not allowed under federal law.

“When asked what community of interest the residents of North Charleston would have with the residents of Congressional District No. 6 in Columbia, Roberts could only think of their common proximity to Interstate I-26, albeit over 100 miles apart,” the judges wrote.

The panel’s decision delivered a victory for civil rights groups after the Supreme Court in 2013 tossed a key provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act. The trial marked the first time South Carolina maps had been scrutinized since the justices removed part of the 1965 law that required the state get federal approval to protect against discriminatory redistricting proposals.

The judges did OK the split of some African American voters in the 2nd District around Columbia to include U.S. Army training base Fort Jackson in the district represented by Joe Wilson. He is expected to be chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and the district boundaries had been in place for 30 years.

South Carolina’s 5th District also was approved by the judges.

Attorneys for state lawmakers said their changes were not driven by race, but by South Carolina’s population boom. Much of the state’s 10% population growth from 2010 to 2020 occurred along the coast.

The General Assembly also argued that the maps were driven not by race but by legitimate political interests like preserving the state’s 6-1 ratio of Republicans to Democrats representing South Carolina in the House of Representatives.

The decision adds another urgent matter to the General Assembly’s session that begins Tuesday.

“We’ve got a lot of other things that we need to be focusing on,” Republican Gov. Henry McMaster said at a Friday news conference where he was releasing his budget plan.

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James Pollard is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A Montana man who was among the first people to illegally enter the U.S. Capitol while Congress was certifying President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election was sentenced to nearly four years in federal prison on the two-year anniversary of the insurrection.

Jerod Hughes, 39, of East Helena, was sentenced Friday to 3 years and 10 months in prison for his actions during the approximately 38 minutes he was inside the Capitol during the riot carried out by supporters of then-President Donald Trump. The sentence was five months shorter than prosecutors requested.

“Defendant sincerely regrets his involvement in the instant case and is embarrassed that he allowed himself to be so gullible,” his attorney, Jonathan Zucker, wrote in his sentencing memo.

In court documents, Hughes said he was duped into believing the 2020 presidential election was stolen and that he was “responding to the clarion call of a charlatan” when he answered Trump’s pleas to “save the country” that day, the Independent Record reported.

His brother, Joshua Hughes, was sentenced in November to just over three years in prison.

Both men were sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution.

The brothers climbed through a broken window and Jerod Hughes helped kick open a door to allow other rioters into the Capitol, the FBI said in charging documents.

The brothers were near the front of a group that pursued Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman while he backed up a flight of stairs and was able to lead the mob away from the Senate floor. The brothers later made their way into the Senate chamber, court records said.

The brothers are among the at least 900 people arrested for crimes related to the riot, the Department of Justice says.

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This version corrects when Joshua Hughes was sentenced to November, instead of last month.

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FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin added an element of drama to the governor’s race Friday, teasing a bid for the Republican nomination before leaving the state Capitol without jumping into the state’s top political race as the filing period expired for the May primary.

Instead the former governor, who was ousted four years ago by Democrat Andy Beshear, held court at length in the Capitol Rotunda about the state’s challenges and offered advice to GOP candidates on how they should conduct their campaigns.

Bevin then promptly left the statehouse and ceded the contest to the other Republicans.

The pugnacious former governor would have been a wild card in the campaign, but his absence still leaves a crowded field in what’s shaping up as a free-for-all among Republicans vying for the chance to unseat Beshear, who is seeking a second term.

Beshear has maintained high approval ratings while leading Kentucky through a series of tragedies — the COVID-19 pandemic and deadly tornadoes and flooding. But he faces a tough task to build a winning coalition in a mostly rural state tilted in favor of Republicans. That’s one reason the race will be closely watched nationally, coming the year before the next presidential election.

For one day, Bevin — who was heavily criticized for a slew of controversial pardons at the end of his term — was again at the center of attention in Kentucky politics. But how it turned out was jaw-dropping, even for someone as unconventional as Bevin — who feuded with teachers, the media and sometimes members of his own party during his tumultuous single term.

With speculation swirling about whether he would run again, Bevin invited reporters to meet him in the ornate Capitol Rotunda about an hour before the filing deadline. It had all the trappings of a major political announcement, with a large contingent of media and political insiders assembled.

Bevin walked in alone and gave a policy speech lasting more than 20 minutes. He railed against the shortcomings of the state’s child welfare and juvenile justice systems, called for an accelerated elimination of the state personal income tax and the need for more opportunities in inner cities.

He then urged the GOP gubernatorial candidates to avoid a bitter primary.

“Let’s not tear each other up and bring each other down,” he said. “Yeah, everybody wants to be the nominee. But at what cost? And I say this even as it relates to our current governor. He’s not the enemy. He’s not the boogeyman. His party isn’t the boogeyman. For Republicans that are listening to this … we’re all Kentuckians. Let’s celebrate that fact.”

He declined to join a primary field that includes state Attorney General Daniel Cameron, state Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles, former United Nations ambassador Kelly Craft, state Auditor Mike Harmon and Somerset Mayor Alan Keck.

Bevin narrowly lost to Beshear in 2019. During his rocky term, Bevin teamed with GOP lawmakers to put Kentucky on a conservative policy course that Republicans say has spurred the state’s economic gains ever since, but his combative style paved the way for Beshear’s election.

Bevin kept a low public profile since leaving office, but speculation of a comeback attempt had swirled for months. On Friday, he teased on Twitter that he would be in the statehouse for an address before “proceeding down the hall,” presumably to the Secretary of State’s office to file for another gubernatorial run.

Instead, he said he looked forward to watching the campaign unfold, saying he wants to see Kentucky “become the greatest version of itself that it could possibly be.” He ended by saying he would be headed down the hallway, but it turned out to be toward an exit from the Capitol.

Bevin would have carried loads of political baggage into the race. He waged a running feud with public school teachers, sparked by his efforts to revamp the state’s public pension systems. And his actions in the final days of his tenure became a lasting part of his legacy.

Bevin issued hundreds of pardons between his electoral defeat and his final day in office in late 2019. One man pardoned by Bevin for a 2014 drug robbery killing was sentenced last year to return to prison to serve a 42-year federal sentence for the same crime. Another pardon went to a man who was serving a sentence for sexually assaulting a minor. The man was also later prosecuted by federal officials for producing child pornography.

Bevin mounted a 2014 primary challenge against U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the main architect of the GOP’s rise to power in Kentucky. Bevin was soundly defeated but then launched an underdog campaign for governor the following year. Bevin won the GOP primary by a mere 83 votes and went on to win the general election.

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Associated Press Writer Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Kentucky, contributed to this report.

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed a sweeping package of election law changes Friday that includes the state’s first photo ID requirement and shortened windows after Election Day for returning and curing ballots.

In a statement, DeWine said the new law would protect election integrity.

“I appreciate the General Assembly working with my administration on changes to House Bill 458 to ensure that more restrictive proposals were not included in the final bill,” he said. “Legislators included our suggestions to expand access to valid photo IDs and to maintain Ohioans’ ability to cast absentee ballots without the more restrictive identification requirements that were debated.”

The second-term governor signaled he may veto any further legislative attempts to restrict the state’s voting laws, saying he does not “expect to see any further statutory changes to Ohio voting procedures while I am governor.”

Among other changes, the bill prohibits curbside voting — except for those with disabilities — and limits ballot drop boxes to one per county, on board of elections property.

Secretary of State Frank LaRose has set a one-location cap by directive in recent elections, but with multiple boxes allowed on site. A court case in 2020 clarified that he has the right to allow them to be placed at various spots around a county.

LaRose, also a Republican, joined DeWine in supporting the new law, saying Ohio has found “a common-sense way” to impose a strict photo ID requirement without disenfranchising voters.

“No piece of legislation is a silver-bullet solution, but we are once again showing Ohioans that we take their concerns seriously and are dedicated to continuously improving our elections,” he said in a statement.

The new law also prohibits LaRose and county election boards from pre-paying return postage on ballots.

By trimming time frames for mailed ballots and provisional processing, Republican lawmakers say they are trying to speed up the vote-counting process that has come under public scrutiny since former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

Democrats and voting rights advocates have called that an excuse for making it more cumbersome to vote in the state. They point to statistics showing voter fraud is already extremely rare and say tightening restrictions is unnecessary.

Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters blasted DeWine for gracing the bill with his signature. Voting rights, civil rights, labor and environmental groups are among those who had been begging with him to veto it.

“Ohio Republicans know that their out-of-touch agenda and anti-worker policies are betraying Ohio voters, and they don’t want to be held accountable,” she said in a statement. “So they’re further rigging the rules in their favor and pushing one of the worst anti-voter bills in the entire country all so that they can keep lining the pockets of their corporate donors and leave working families in Ohio out to dry.”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Kevin McCarthy was elected House Speaker on a 15th ballot in the midnight hour early Saturday, capping a tumultuous week on the House floor.

Six Republicans who opposed McCarthy voted “present,” paving the way for McCarthy’s victory with 216 votes.

In the raucous 14th, even after two key Republican holdouts voted present to lower the tally McCarthy would need, it was not enough. He strode to the back of the chamber to confront Matt Gaetz, sitting with Lauren Boebert and other holdouts. Fingers were pointed, words exchanged and violence apparently just averted.

At one point, Republican Mike Rogers of Alabama started to charge toward Gatez before Richard Hudson physically pulled him back.

“Stay civil!” someone shouted.

Still, McCarthy was on the cusp of becoming House speaker as the chamber convened for a fourth historic day after he made extraordinary gains in a grueling standoff that has tested American democracy and the GOP majority’s ability to govern.

The House gaveled in late in the night, giving time for last-minute negotiations and for absent Republican colleagues time to return to Washington if their votes were needed. But the chamber drew tense and still as the roll call fell short.

There then was a vote to adjourn — but Republicans led by McCarthy started changing their votes to stay in session, and a 15th round of voting began as the clock neared midnight.

McCarthy had declared to reporters earlier in the day that he believed “we’ll have the votes to finish this once and for all.”

The day’s stunning turn of events came after McCarthy agreed to many of the detractors’ demands — including the reinstatement of a longstanding House rule that would allow any single member to call a vote to oust him from office.

Even if McCarthy is able to secure the votes he needs, he will emerge as a weakened speaker, having given away some powers and constantly under the threat of being booted by his detractors.

But he could also be emboldened as a survivor of one of the more brutal fights for the gavel in U.S. history. Not since the Civil War era has a speaker’s vote dragged through so many rounds of voting.

The showdown that has stymied the new Congress came against the backdrop of the second anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, which shook the country when a mob of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters tried to stop Congress from certifying the Republican’s 2020 election defeat to Democrat Joe Biden.

At a Capitol event on Friday, some lawmakers, mostly Democrats, observed a moment of silence and praised officers who helped protect Congress on that day. And at the White House, Biden handed out medals to officers and others who fought the attackers.

“America is a land of laws, not chaos,” he said.

At the afternoon speaker’s vote, a number of Republicans tiring of the spectacle temporarily walked out when one of McCarthy’s most ardent challengers railed against the GOP leader.

And an upbeat McCarthy told reporters as he arrived at the Capitol, “We’re going to make progress. We’re going to shock you.”

One significant former holdout, Republican Scott Perry, chairman of the conservative Freedom Caucus who had been a leader of Trump’s efforts to challenge the 2020 election, tweeted after his switched vote for McCarthy: “We’re at a turning point.”

Another Republican holdout, Byron Donalds of Florida, who was repeatedly nominated as an alternative candidate for speaker, switched on Friday, too, voting for McCarthy.

Trump may have played a role in swaying the holdouts. Donalds said he had spoken to the former president who had been urging Republicans to wrap up their public dispute the day before.

On the 12th ballot, McCarthy won the most votes for the first time 213. A 13th was swiftly launched, this time, just between McCarthy and the Democratic leader, and he picked up one more detractor, to 214.

With 432 members now voting — including the dramatic return of Democrat David Trone who had been out for surgery — McCarthy still fell short of the majority. Six Republicans cast their ballots for a Republican colleague. McCarthy allies were counting on the return of two absent colleagues to push him even closer to the majority in nighttime voting.

As Rep. Mike Garcia nominated McCarthy for Friday, he also thanked the U.S. Capitol Police who were given a standing ovation for protecting lawmakers and the legislative seat of democracy on Jan. 6.

But in nominating the Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat Jim Clyburn recalled the horror of that day and told his colleagues: “The eyes of the country are on us today,” he said.

Without a speaker, the chamber is unable swear in members and begin its 2023-24 session, a sign of the difficulty ahead for the new Republican majority as it tries to govern.

Electing a speaker is normally an easy, joyous task for a party that has just won majority control. But not this time: About 200 Republicans have been stymied by 20 far-right colleagues who said he’s not conservative enough.

The disorganized start to the new Congress pointed to difficulties ahead with Republicans now in control of the House, much the way that some past Republican speakers, including John Boehner, had trouble leading a rebellious right flank. The result: government shutdowns, standoffs and Boehner’s early retirement when conservatives threatened to oust him.

At the core of the emerging deal is the reinstatement of a House rule that would allow a single lawmaker to make a motion to “vacate the chair,” essentially calling a vote to oust the speaker. McCarthy had resisted allowing a return to the longstanding rule that former Speaker Nancy Pelosi had done away with, because it had been held over the head of past Republican Speaker Boehner. But it appears McCarthy had no other choice.

Other wins for the holdouts are more obscure and include provisions in the proposed deal to expand the number of seats available on the House Rules Committee, to mandate 72 hours for bills to be posted before votes and to promise to try for a constitutional amendment that would impose federal limits on the number of terms a person could serve in the House and Senate.

Before Friday’s ballots, Democratic leader Jeffries of New York had won the most votes on every ballot but also remained short of a majority. McCarthy ran second, gaining no ground.

Pressure has grown with each passing day for McCarthy to somehow find the votes he needs or step aside. Congress cannot fully function, the incoming Republican chairmen of the House’s Foreign Affairs, Armed Services and Intelligence committees all said national security was at risk, staff risk not getting paychecks.

The longest fight for the gavel started in late 1855 and dragged on for two months, with 133 ballots, during debates over slavery in the run-up to the Civil War.

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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas’ recently reelected Democratic governor and Republican legislators are headed for a clash over how their financially flush state should cut taxes, and abortion opponents are wrestling with what ideas to pursue following last year’s decisive statewide vote favoring abortion rights.

Gov. Laura Kelly is scheduled to take the oath of office for her second four-year term in a ceremony at noon Monday. The Republican-controlled Legislature is set to convene in the afternoon for an annual session that’s expected to last into early May.

Both Kelly and leaders of the Republicans’ supermajorities in both chambers are making tax cuts a top priority but differ on what taxes to cut.

Besides abortion, almost a perennial issue for them, lawmakers expect to tackle education issues and water policy. Republicans also plan to pass another version of a bill to ban transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s college and K-12 sports, despite two past vetoes from Kelly.

Here is a look at key issues before Kansas lawmakers:

VOTE SCRAMBLES NEARLY ANNUAL ABORTION DEBATE

Abortion opponents are constrained by a Kansas Supreme Court ruling in 2019 that abortion access is a “fundamental” right under the state constitution. GOP lawmakers pushed to amend the constitution to say it doesn’t grant a right to abortion — allowing lawmakers to ban it — but voters rejected the proposed change in August.

While key anti-abortion groups haven’t announced their plans, GOP lawmakers have floated several ideas, including an increase in the state’s minimal aid to anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers or a largely symbolic law telling doctors they must do everything they can to prevent newborns from dying, even following a botched abortion.

Abortion opponents also are upset that abortion medications are becoming more accessible in Kansas. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently finalized a rule allowing more pharmacies to dispense the medications. In November a state court judge blocked enforcement of the state’s requirement that doctors providing the medication be in the same room when patients take it, allowing teleconferencing.

SURPLUS CASH PROMPTS NEW PUSH FOR TAX CUTS

Kansas garnered national attention for a 2012-13 slashing of income taxes and the persistent budget shortfalls that followed. But now, more than five years after lawmakers repealed most of the experiment, the state is headed toward ending June 2024 with $4.2 billion in surplus cash.

Kelly last year pushed to eliminate the sales tax on groceries last year, but lawmakers phased it out over three years, so that it dropped to 4% from 6.5% at the start of this year and doesn’t disappear until 2025. The Democratic governor wants to zero out the tax as of April, but many Republicans are resisting.

Kelly also has proposed lower taxes on incomes in retirement, but many Republicans are more ambitious, with some wanting to eliminate it altogether.

And Senate President Ty Masterson, a Wichita-area Republican, said he’d like to see Kansas move to a “flat” income tax, with one rate for all individual and corporate filers, instead of three for individuals and two for corporations. He argues that the simpler tax system would boost Kansas economically.

“I’m optimistic about a combination” that includes some version of what the governor has proposed, he said.

GOVERNOR, REPUBLICANS LIKELY TO CLASH ON EDUCATION

Conservative Republicans haven’t given up on proposals that they believe will make public K-12 schools more transparent and give parents more choices about where to educate their kids, despite Kelly’s veto last year of a “parental rights” measure. Critics, particularly Democratic lawmakers, see them as attacks on public schools.

GOP lawmakers expect again to pursue proposals that would require schools to post more information about what’s being taught online and to make it easier for parents to seek the removal of materials and books from classrooms and libraries that they find objectionable. It’s part of a push by Republicans across the U.S. to limit what’s taught about gender, sexuality and the role of racism in U.S. history and society.

REPUBLICANS TO PURSUE ELECTION LAW CHANGES

While voters across the U.S. last year rejected candidates promoting baseless election conspiracies, tightening up Kansas election laws remains a priority for many Republicans. They expect to pursue proposals to limit or eliminate ballot drop boxes and end the state’s three-day grace period for mail ballots to arrive after an election.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Scott Schwab, a Republican who vouches for the integrity of Kansas elections and defeated an election conspiracy promoter in last year’s GOP primary, says he will have his own package of proposals to prevent voter intimidation and protect their privacy, though he hasn’t made specific proposals public.

MARIJUANA, MEDICAID MEASURES ARE LIKELY NON-STARTERS

Kelly promised throughout her successful reelection campaign that she’ll push again to expand the state’s Medicaid health coverage to another 150,000 people, and she supports legalizing marijuana for medical uses.

Despite a perception that both ideas are widely popular among Kansas residents, neither appears likely to pass this year.

Kelly pushed Medicaid expansion throughout her first term and could put together working majorities for it in both chambers, but Republicans in key positions blocked it. Both Masterson and new Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican, are vocal foes, as are the chairs of the chambers’ health committees.

As for medical marijuana, a measure passed the House in 2021. But it didn’t get even a committee vote in the Senate, where top GOP leaders are wary of such a law leading to pot’s legalization for recreational use.

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Follow John Hanna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/apjdhanna

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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A former Philadelphia election official who has told of enduring death threats for defending the city’s 2020 vote-counting against former President Donald Trump’s lies will be nominated for the top election administration post in Pennsylvania.

Al Schmidt will be nominated to be Pennsylvania Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro’s secretary of state, the campaign said Thursday, setting him up to oversee what is expected to be a hard-fought 2024 election in the critical presidential battleground.

Shapiro, a Democrat, made the post his first Cabinet selection to be publicly announced ahead of his Jan. 17 inauguration.

Protecting elections and voting rights was central to Shapiro’s campaign, as he emphasized his intention to nominate a “pro-Democracy” secretary of state and his role, as attorney general, in fighting efforts in court by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

“Al Schmidt has a proven track record of defending our democracy, protecting voting rights and standing up to extremism — even in the face of grave threats,” Shapiro said in a statement.

Schmidt, 51, is a Republican, fitting in with Shapiro’s theme of fashioning a bipartisan administration in politically divided Pennsylvania.

Schmidt is currently president and CEO of the Committee of Seventy, a good-government group in Philadelphia. Before he joined the group a year ago, Schmidt spent a decade as a Republican elected to the three-member board that oversees elections in Philadelphia.

Holding the post of secretary of state is subject to confirmation in the Republican-controlled Senate.

The $165,000-salary job involves overseeing how the state’s 67 counties run their elections, giving them guidance and assistance on how to manage it — a task that has grown in complexity with the advent of the state’s no-excuse mail-in voting law and conspiracy theorists inspired by Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

The department also administers a long list of professional licensing commissions that report to the department.

In 2020, Schmidt became the face of Philadelphia’s protracted vote count when Trump and his campaign repeatedly claimed that “bad things happen in Philadelphia” and spread lies to sow doubt about the legitimacy of the election in the heavily Democratic city.

With help from Philadelphia, Trump lost Pennsylvania to Democrat Joe Biden.

Few, if any, Republicans came to Schmidt’s defense during a time when he has said he received Trump-inspired death threats against him and his family that he has called “domestic terrorism.” No lawsuit, prosecutor or election worker has produced evidence of widespread fraud in Philadelphia’s 2020 election.

In the wake of the election, Schmidt testified in front of a U.S. Senate committee and the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

He has since become a prominent critic of what he has called the “vicious cycle” of conspiracy theorists and politicians who spread lies about elections.

The falsehoods prompt deceived constituents to demand that politicians do something — usually resulting in a push to restrict voting rights and violent threats to election workers, Schmidt has said.

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Follow Marc Levy on Twitter: http://twitter.com/timelywriter

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