In a historic delay, House Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy, is facing a protracted battle to secure the speaker’s gavel after failing to win the first and second votes on Tuesday, the opening day of the new Congress.

On both of the first two ballots to decide the next House speaker, 19 Republicans opposed McCarthy’s candidacy, leaving him 15 votes short of the 218 needed for a win. In a demoralizing sign for the new House Republican majority, Democrat Hakeem Jeffries received more votes than McCarthy on both ballots.

With his loss, McCarthy became the first nominee for speaker in 100 years to fail to win the initial vote for the gavel. After the inconclusive first two ballots, the House prepared for additional votes that could stretch into Tuesday evening.

McCarthy previously acknowledged he was unlikely to win the speakership on the first ballot, setting the stage for a potentially lengthy delay before new members of the House can be sworn into office. Underscoring his commitment, McCarthy suggested he was comfortable breaking the record for the longest speakership election in history, which currently stands at two months and 133 ballots.

“We may have a battle on the floor,” McCarthy told reporters ahead of the vote. “But the battle is for the conference and the country, and that’s fine with me.”

The Republican opposition to McCarthy has been led by members of the House Freedom Caucus, a hard-right group of lawmakers who have pushed for a number of changes to chamber rules in recent weeks. Scott Perry, the chair of the Freedom Caucus, reiterated his opposition on Tuesday and accused McCarthy of failing to work in good faith with his group.

“At nearly every turn, we’ve been sidelined or resisted by McCarthy, and any perceived progress has often been vague or contained loopholes that further amplified concerns as to the sincerity of the promises being made,” Perry said in a statement. “Kevin McCarthy had an opportunity to be Speaker of the House. He rejected it.”

McCarthy’s allies have lashed out against Perry and other holdouts in the speakership vote, contending they have prioritized their own political ambitions over the wellbeing of the party.

Formally nominating McCarthy for speaker before the first vote, Elise Stefanik wholeheartedly endorsed his candidacy and delivered some thinly veiled criticism of his opponents.

“No one in this body has worked harder for this Republican majority than Kevin McCarthy,” Stefanik said. “A proud conservative with a tireless work ethic, Kevin McCarthy has earned the speakership of the People’s House.”

In the first vote, a third nomination was put forward by Arizona congressman Paul Gosar, a far-right Republican who offered Arizona congressman Andy Biggs as a conservative alternative. Of the 19 Republicans who opposed McCarthy on the first ballot, 10 supported Biggs, who lost to McCarthy in the November nominating contest, 188-31.

On the second ballot, Jim Jordan, a Republican of Ohio, won the support of all 19 Republicans who opposed McCarthy in the first vote. That impressive showing came even after Jordan himself nominated McCarthy for the second ballot in an attempted show of unity. In his nominating speech, Jordan outlined Republicans’ legislative agenda and urged his colleagues to set aside their differences to achieve their collective goals.

“We need to rally around him [and] come together,” Jordan said.

The Tuesday conference meeting failed to resolve the lingering issues between McCarthy and his detractors. Matt Gaetz, one of McCarthy’s most vocal critics in the caucus, said that those withholding their support were threatened with being removed from committees if they did not change their position.

“If you want to drain the swamp, you cannot put the biggest alligator in charge of the exercise,” Gaetz told reporters. “I’m a Florida man, and I know of what I speak.”

Gaetz and his colleagues showed no sign of relenting as the House prepared for a third ballot on Tuesday afternoon. Their continued opposition raised the prospect of the first lengthy floor fight over the House speakership in 100 years, as the last such spectacle unfolded in 1923.

As Republicans squabbled, Democrats rallied behind their leader, Jeffries. “He does not bend a knee to anyone who would seek to undermine our democracy,” California congressman Pete Aguilar, the third-ranking House Democrat, said in a speech nominating Jeffries to be speaker.

Across the Capitol, the Senate convened without incident. Democrats welcomed two new members – including Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, who helped his party secure a 51-49 majority in the chamber.

In his first floor remarks of the new Congress, the majority leader, Chuck Schumer, commended his counterpart, the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, on becoming the chamber’s longest-serving party leader in history.

As a new era of divided government begins, after two years of unified Democratic control, Schumer acknowledged the legislative path forward “won’t be easy” but was nevertheless optimistic.

“After everything we’ve accomplished in an evenly divided Senate and a narrowly divided House,” he said, “there’s no reason both sides can’t keep working together for the good of our country, our beloved country.”