In the first day of what could prove to be a brutal showdown between about 20 hardliners and the other 202 members of the Republican caucus, McCarthy failed in three ballots to achieve the 218 votes needed to become Speaker, a role second in line to the Oval Office after the vice president.

The last time the House failed to elect a speaker on the first ballot was 1923.

It was a disconcerting start for the new Republican majority and highlights the challenges the party could face in the next two years, heading into the 2024 presidential election.

Its slim 222-212 majority gives greater clout to a small group of hardliners, who want to focus on dealing defeat to Democrats and pushing investigations of President Joe Biden’s administration and family.

McCarthy, 57, from California, knew he faced an uphill climb heading into Tuesday’s vote and had vowed to continue to force votes but the chamber on Tuesday evening voted to adjourn until midday Wednesday, a move that would give Republicans time to discuss other candidates.

Popular conservative Representative Jim Jordan, 58, from Ohio, won 20 votes in the final ballot of the day, far from the 218 threshold to become Speaker but enough to stop McCarthy.

“I think that Kevin knows that this is his last shot,” said Representative Kenneth Buck, who voted to support McCarthy.

He noted that McCarthy previously tried in 2015 to become Speaker and failed in the face of conservative opposition, adding, “he’s not gonna have this chance again”.

A protracted Speaker election could undermine House Republicans’ hopes of moving forward quickly on investigations and legislative priorities that include the economy, US energy independence and border security.

The chamber’s top Democrat, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, bested McCarthy in all three votes.

In the day’s final tally, Jeffries led McCarthy 212 to 202 votes.

A majority of those voting, not a plurality, is needed to determine a Speaker.

A standoff would leave the House largely paralysed and could force lawmakers to consider another Republican candidate such as incoming Majority Leader Steve Scalise, 57, from Louisiana, or Jordan.

Jordan himself had spoken in support of McCarthy before he was nominated and all three times voted for him.

“We need to rally around him,” Jordan had said in an impassioned speech on the House floor.

“I think Kevin McCarthy’s the right guy to lead us.”

Jordan is a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump and a co-founder of the conservative House Freedom Caucus.

A former college wrestler, he is preparing to oversee the House Judiciary Committee’s investigation of the Justice Department and FBI under Biden.

Any Republican Speaker will have the tough task of managing a House Republican caucus moving ever rightward, with uncompromising tendencies and – at least among some lawmakers – close allegiances to Trump.

The record number of voting rounds to elect a House speaker is 133 over a two-month period in the 1850s.

The Democrats picked Jeffries to serve as minority leader after Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to serve as Speaker, announced that she would step down from her leadership role.

She will remain in office as a representative.

-AAP