Usa news: The House speaker’s gavel is now held by a Republican, and with that change will come new priorities, a series of investigations and partisan gridlock that could bring President Joe Biden’s agenda to a crawl, if not a full stop.

Kevin McCarthy, who triumphed in a contentious, historic floor nomination battle to become the next House speaker, has made clear in the weeks since the Nov. 8 election that Democrats would no longer have one-party rule of Washington.

But McCarthy’s effort to gain control of the gavel was hard-fought. A group of conservative hard-liners seeking greater influence in the House stymied the California lawmaker’s ascension by voting against him on 14 ballots. It was the first time the process of electing a speaker took more than one ballot in more than 100 years.

To win the speaker role, McCarthy made concessions over rules and committee assignments, giving more power to those who opposed him.

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