'Won’t get him to 218': Kevin McCarthy still short of votes to be speaker after latest 'breakthrough'

Several top Capitol Hill journalists are reporting some form of an agreement has been reached that might get Kevin McCarthy a few more votes, but apparently not enough to grant him the Speaker’s gavel.

As the House was ending the tenth vote for Speaker, Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman reported, “Sources tell us a deal between McCarthy and his opponents is close.”

GOP Congress Members Chip Roy and Patrick McHenry “have been negotiating it,” he tweeted, saying one of the insurgents, U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) “says he expects an offer in writing tonight.”

Congressman McHenry, Sherman adds, “said he feels very favorable about where things are heading. And the pieces, he said, are coming together.”

At 5:40 PM ET Sherman wrote that Rep. Norman “just entered Emmer’s office, saying he had been invited to view an agreement on paper.”

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McCarthy lost one vote on the ninth round and apparently on the tenth round.

“Negotiators pushing to finalize a deal that could help them adjourn for the night and get McCarthy closer to 218 votes,” reports CNN’s Manu Raju. “It’s a product born out of talks between GOP leaders and Roy/Perry. Roy just told us: ‘A lot of good work has been done today. There’s still a lot to be done.'”

No details have been announced, and it’s unclear what else McCarthy has had to give away.

It also isn’t enough to get him elected Speaker.

“It still won’t get him to 218, GOP sources say,” Raju adds, “but if they get a deal it will get him closer. And then they can work to pick off member-by-member, they hope. Some may vote ‘present’ to lower threshold.”

CNN’s Ryan Struyk reports U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) on that network said, “The newest word is that there is some sort of a breakthrough, not towards victory, but towards ending the numbers, reducing them, and evidently that’s going to take place tonight.”