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Kevin McCarthy’s fate on the line, House conservatives warn speaker’s election could take days

A group of conservative holdouts who are refusing to back Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy in Tuesday’s vote for House speaker said his rejection of their demands leaves him short of the votes needed to win the gavel.

They warned that electing a new House speaker could take hours or even days.

“It’s going to be a chaotic day,” a top aide to one of the GOP holdouts told The Washington Times on Tuesday. “Could this last for days? Yeah, it could.”

Rep. Scott Perry, a conservative Republican from Pennsylvania, outlined the demands Mr. McCarthy has so far rejected, including commitments to consider term limits for members of Congress, a balanced budget measure and legislation to replace income taxes with a national sales tax.