McCarthy flips 15 GOP votes in House speaker’s race, including Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona

Rep. Kevin McCarthy made significant progress Friday in his bid to become speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, flipping 15 GOP holdout votes in 13 total rounds of voting.

Among the members switching their votes on the second anniversary of the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot was Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz.

Rep. Andy Biggs and Rep.-Elect Eli Crane, both Arizona Republicans, remained defiant in their opposition to McCarthy, R-Calif. There will be a 14th round of voting later tonight, where McCarthy likely will need 218 votes to win the speaker’s gavel. There have not been this many round of votes for House speaker since before the Civil War.

On the fourth day of the speaker’s vote, 14 of the 20 House Republicans who voted against McCarthy on Thursday voted in his favor. Thirteen flipped in the 12th round, with Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., changing his vote in the 13th round.

One member, Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., voted for McCarthy after voting “present.”

Among the three Arizona Republicans who had previously voted against McCarthy, Gosar changed his vote to align with the majority of the Republican caucus. His office is not yet responding to requests for comment.

McCarthy made concessions Thursday night while negotiating with the group of 20 who voted against him that would weaken his power as speaker even further.

Biggs and Crane were part of a group of six Republicans who voted against McCarthy in the 13th round.

Biggs and Crane voted in round 13 for Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who also had been a candidate for speaker when voting began Jan 3. Jordan is backing McCarthy.

In round 12, Crane voted for Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Colo., like he did in the 10th and 11th rounds. Biggs switched his vote from Hern to Jordan in the 12th round.

In an interview clip with the One America News Network that Crane retweeted Friday, Crane said his constituents “didn’t want me supporting the establishment. They didn’t want me supporting Kevin McCarthy.”

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“I told Kevin that himself,” he continued. “I have no ax to grind with Kevin, but I’m listening to my constituents and it’s really that simple.”

Biggs tweeted a meme with the actor Leonardo DiCaprio, with “I’m not leaving” at the bottom of the picture, presumably meaning he was not changing his stance on McCarthy.

Republican Reps. Debbie Lesko and David Schweikert and Rep.-elect Juan Ciscomani remained committed Friday to McCarthy as speaker.

Along with the rest of the Democrats in the House, Reps. Ruben Gallego, Raúl Grijalva and Greg Stanton supported Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., for speaker.

Tara Kavaler is a politics reporter at The Arizona Republic. She can be reached by email at tara.kavaler@arizonarepublic.com or on Twitter @kavalertara.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: McCarthy flips 15 GOP votes for House speaker, including Gosar of AZ