Kevin McCarthy, the Republican House Majority Leader, was elected as the new Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. After 15 rounds of voting, he rose to the third-highest position in the U.S. power hierarchy.
On the 6th (local time), the U.S. House held a plenary session and continued voting to elect the Speaker of the 118th Congress. After midnight passed into the early hours of the 7th, the winner was confirmed on the 15th vote.
Newly elected Speaker McCarthy won with 216 votes, defeating the Democratic candidate for Speaker, House Majority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who received 212 votes.
Speaker McCarthy is regarded as a pro-Trump conservative. He has strongly supported former President Donald Trump since the 2016 Republican presidential primary.
During the impeachment proceedings against former President Trump, he worked hard to prevent Republican defections. Right after the 2020 presidential election, he also expressed support for Trump's claims of "election fraud."
He has taken a tough stance on China. Upon becoming Speaker, he expressed a desire to form a special committee to address China-related issues and to visit Taiwan. He also positively evaluated the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which led to an increase in U.S. beef exports.
He was elected House Majority Leader in 2014, eight years after entering the House. He was re-elected as Majority Leader in 2018 and has been leading the House since then.
Born in 1965, his congressional office website introduces him as "the grandson of a cattle rancher and the son of a firefighter, raised in a working-class family, dedicated to preserving and promoting the American Dream of hardworking Americans."
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