[3] After the longest speaker election since December 1859 – February 1860, McCarthy won the speakership by making concessions to Republican Party hardliners,[4][5] who had refused to support him through several rounds of voting, finding him too weak and untrustworthy.

[3] Among the concessions made by McCarthy to the holdouts was agreeing that the House rules for the 118th United States Congress would allow a single member to independently bring a motion to vacate the speakership.

Less than ten months later, Matt Gaetz (one of the holdouts) brought such a motion; which prevailed, thereby ousting McCarthy from the speakership.

[17] Traditionally, each of the party caucuses and conferences selects a candidate for the speakership from among its senior leaders prior to the roll call.

[18] Upon winning election, the new speaker is immediately sworn in by the House dean, the chamber's longest-serving member.

If no candidate wins a majority of the votes cast for a person by name, then the roll call is repeated until a speaker is elected.

[29] By early 2022, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries of New York was viewed as the top prospect to succeed Pelosi if she were to retire as the leader of the Democratic Caucus.

[30] However, ahead of the 2022 election Pelosi refused to confirm whether she intended to honor her pledge to serve no further terms as leader.

[33] The following day, Jeffries distributed a letter to House Democratic Caucus members declaring his intent to run to succeed Pelosi.

[43] However, McCarthy's first pursuit of the House speakership had been the October 2015 speaker election, which was held after John Boehner resigned under pressure from conservative hardliners and the Freedom Caucus,[10][44] Kevin McCarthy sought the Republican nomination and was initially judged as the party's preferred candidate.

[58] Several names were floated as a potential compromise candidate, the most prominent of which was Fred Upton, a moderate Republican who had been the representative for Michigan's 6th congressional district up to his retirement in the 2022 election cycle.

At a closed-door meeting shortly before the speaker vote on January 3, Mike Rogers of Alabama threatened dissident Republicans with removal from House committees.

[60] Prior to the vote, Politico reported that at least five Republican representatives had refused to support McCarthy, while another nine had not publicly commented on whether they would.

"[63] The Club for Growth, a conservative political advocacy group, openly called for House Republicans to oppose his nomination.

[64] It was reported that these representatives demanded that McCarthy make concessions before they would support him, such as lowering the barriers for caucus members to force a vote to remove a sitting speaker and other procedural matters.

[73] During the fourth vote, Roy nominated Byron Donalds of Florida, who replaced Jordan as the Republican alternative to McCarthy.

[76] The House reconvened on January 5, and from the seventh to the eleventh ballots no candidate achieved a majority of the vote, making this the longest speaker election since that of December 1859 – February 1860.

[83] Since no nominee received an outright majority of the vote, a second ballot took place for the first time since the December 1923 U.S. speaker election.

"[72][88] After the third ballot, Tom Cole of Oklahoma moved to adjourn the meeting until 12:00 p.m. on January 4, and the motion was approved by voice vote.

[102] Pete Sessions of Texas also suggested that Republicans should begin to consider other speaker candidates,[103] with Scalise, the House Majority Leader-elect, being specifically named.

[105] At the same time, the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with McCarthy, reached an agreement with the Club for Growth not to spend money in the primary election of Republicans in open districts that are considered safe seats for the party.

Boebert, as well as Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma, who had both previously supported Donalds, cast their votes for Hern, who was not formally nominated.

[115] Donalds continued as the main Republican opposition to McCarthy,[116] while Hern was nominated for the ninth, tenth, and eleventh ballots, receiving as many as seven votes.

Buck and Trone were absent due to scheduled medical procedures; Hunt returned to Texas because his wife was in a hospital following the premature birth of their son.

Trone, who was absent on the previous ballot due to undergoing shoulder surgery that morning, returned to the House to continue voting for Jeffries.

[128] According to The New York Times, Gaetz was seeking a subcommittee chairmanship in the House Armed Services Committee, of which Rogers was in line to become chairman.

It was determined that the plan would not be able to yield a winner if executed on January 9 because a couple of Republicans were unable to attend the session on that day due to family obligations.

[28] Thirteen of the fourteen prior U.S. speaker elections that took more than one ballot occurred before the American Civil War.

[146] On January 8, Chip Roy, one of the Republicans who held out on voting for McCarthy, stated that C-SPAN's increased independence was a good thing and that he may be open to it being permanent.

Matt Gaetz, another Republican holdout, introduced an amendment that would allow C-SPAN "to broadcast and record the floor proceedings of the House with not less than 4 cameras owned and operated by [them]".