After an epic 15-rounds of voting the U.S. House of Representatives finally have a Speaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kevin McCarthy’s road to the Speaker’s office was filled with twists, turns, and a number of concessions as the California lawmaker desperately fought to convince nearly 20 hardline Republicans to sway their votes in his favor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rep. Byron Donalds (Fla.) was among a group of 20 hardline Republicans who refused to vote for McCarthy after he initially voted in his favor. He later switched to support Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) before his fellow Republicans nominated him for the role.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ultimately, Donalds revealed to Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo that he is being placed on the\u00a0House Republican\u00a0Steering Committee in exchange for supporting Kevin McCarthy for House speaker.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“I\u2019m frankly just happy that it\u2019s all over with, and that we got something transformational and sound for the American people,” Donalds said. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
\nThe committee\u2019s purpose is to assign fellow Republicans to other House committees. Donalds noted that his\u00a0appointment to the Steering Committee was an important step to having “more [Republican] voices on more committees.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Early on I gave Kevin the benefit of the doubt. But it came pretty quickly clear to me that we were getting nowhere. And so, at that point, it was saying, \u2018OK, how long is this going to go? What\u2019s this going to play out like?\u2019” Donalds said. “And so it was really about trying to make sure that we can get people to the table in order to construct a framework that everybody in our conference can get behind.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n