Kevin McCarthy Elected Speaker of the House on 15th Ballot

Spencer Brown / Townhall Tipsheet

Following a more-chaotic-than-usual conclusion to voting on the 14th failed ballot Friday night, the House of Representatives finally elected House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House on the 15th ballot in the early morning hours just before 1:00 a.m. on Saturday.

For McCarthy to finally win, GOP leadership convinced enough holdout members to change their votes to "present" for the 15th ballot after the 14th round failed. 

The final total on the 15th ballot: 216 votes for McCarthy, 212 votes for Jeffries, and 5 "present" votes.

As Friday night turned into Saturday morning, things were tense on the House floor, and Republicans ended up appearing to restrain their own from attacking fellow Republicans after the 14th vote didn't clinch McCarthy's bid for House Speaker — contrary to McCarthy's stated belief that he had the votes. Read more, see tweets and video here.