Rep. Kevin McCarthy has secured the majority of his party members' votes to support his bid, but that may not be enough for him to win the speakership.
In a tweet, Republican Congressman Andy Biggs claimed McCarthy is "short" of the required 218 votes needed to secure the gavel and added that he will "continue to oppose McCarthy for house speaker."
McCarthy met with members of his caucus again Monday night to try to build up support after making concessions on House rule changes. Those changes include the ability of any five members of the majority party to initiate a vote to remove the speaker.
Incoming House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries described the situation on the Republican side as "chaos."
"He's given them everything they're asking for my friends in the Freedom Caucus, they need to take their win,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R -Ga.) said .
The new Congress is also making history with the largest number of women elected to serve, with 149 women set to serve in the U.S. House and Senate.
More than half of the incoming class of 22 freshman women in the house are women of color, including Congresswoman-Elect Summer Lee, the first Black woman to ever represent Pennsylvania.
"I'm honored to serve as people who come from a working class background, from a black community," Lee said.
