Happy Kevin McCarthy has been trying to become Speaker of the House of Representatives since Tuesday - now he's done it.

DLNews Politics:

Republican McCarthy, now elected Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives - Trump confidant, prevails in the 15th ballot with 216 to 211 votes.

It was a victory by the skin of its teeth! After a relentless internal party power struggle, Republican Kevin McCarthy (57) is the new Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives - it was the longest election for the so-called Speaker of the House since the 19th century.

At the end stand: 15 ballots - fourteen times his party friends let him run, fourteen times McCarthy was humiliated in public. It is the apparent legacy of the presidency of Donald Trump (76), who split the Republicans into two camps.

After the 14th electoral defeat (McCarthy was one vote short), there were even tumults in the Chamber. The mood among the Republicans: heated.

McCarthy went to the back of the Chamber and confronted Republican Matt Gaetz (40), one of his most formidable opponents. Fingers were pointed at him, and words were exchanged. However, fisticuffs were apparently just averted.

In the meantime, there were riots in the House of Representatives - physical violence was averted.

At one point, Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, 59, of Alabama, yelled at Gaetz before another Republican, Richard Hudson, 51, pulled him back.

Someone shouted: "Stay civilized!".

It was only after all the humiliation, the tumult, several rounds of negotiations with the ultraconservatives, and concessions that McCarthy's election was made.

Republican Kevin McCarthy has been elected the new chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives after a historically protracted power struggle.

McCarthy is now the new number three in the state rankings - behind U.S. President Joe Biden (80) and his vice president Kamala Harris (58). He succeeds Democrat Nancy Pelosi (82) in office.

The party's internal rebellion against McCarthy paralyzed the House of Representatives for days and plunged it into chaos.

After the parliamentary elections in November, Congress met for the first time on Tuesday in a new constellation. The Republicans took control of the House of Representatives – in the Senate, President Joe Biden's Democrats still have a narrow majority.

The House of Representatives should have chosen a new chairperson on Tuesday. The inner-party rebellion against McCarthy, however, dramatically lengthened the process.

Usually, the election to the chair of the Chamber of Congress is a formality. But several party colleagues from the faction's right-wing wing rebelled against McCarthy and refused to support him. Given the narrow majority of Republicans in the Chamber, McCarthy did not manage to get enough votes on various ballots.

It was a humiliation of historic proportions for the Republicans: not since the 19th century has it taken so many attempts in the House of Representatives to choose a new leader as this time.

The last time there were more ballots was in 1859/1860. At that time, Republican William Pennington was only elected chairman of the Chamber of Congress on the 44th ballot. The process took several weeks at the time. In McCarthy's case, the voting marathon dragged on for four days.