the gentleman from the state of california and the next speaker of the 118th congress, kevin mccarthy. [ cheers and applause ] kevin mccarthy grabbing the gavel after 15 rounds of voting. it was the longest speaker contest in 164 years. despite sometimes contentions and negotiations with the narrow faction of his conference, republicans in the end rallied around mccarthy and his vision for america. i make this promise i ll never give up for you, the american people. and i will never give up on keeping our commitment to america. our nation is worth fighting for. our rights are worth fighting for. our dreams are worth fighting for. cnn s eva mckend is live on capitol hill. eva, what finally pushed mccarthy over the edge for these republican holdouts? reporter: well, he was able to convince those never-kevin lawmakers ultimately vote present and that is how he secured this victory on the 15th try, fred, but also by making some key concessions. so, for instance, those
anyway. reporter: the group had been at the center of some of the biggest fights on capitol hill. at this point, it looks like we could be in for a very long-term shutdown. reporter: consistently making the task of governing more challenging. i don t want us to become a faction nalized majority. i want us to become a unified majority. reporter: to the frustration of past house republican speakers. i share frustration. about 90% of our conference is for this bill to repeal and replace obamacare, and about 10% are not. reporter: the freedom caucus was involved in former house speaker john boehner s oust during 2015. in my case, on any given day, there were two or three dozen what i call knuckleheads who just wanted they wanted chaos. they wanted it all their way or no way. reporter: he stepped down amid difficulty managing the faction. the people on the fringes have a bigger platform to make their points, and frankly create chaos. reporter: later that year,