Even months before the midterm election, the long-presumed next Speaker of the House was Kevin McCarthy, a man who has made gaining the position his ultimate ambition.
For a few weeks, several moderate Republicans have hinted they could vote with the Democrats for a centrist speaker.
The candidate may be Fred Upton, a long-serving Republican moderate who has long lamented the increasingly partisan nature of Congress.
Upton himself was reported to have considered the idea “an intriguing suggestion that I have not rejected”, according to the Detroit News.
In order to be elected speaker, a candidate needs 218 votes in the House.
Which means if all 212 Democrats back a candidate, only six Republicans need to cross the aisle.
Upton himself is not able to vote.
Facing headwinds within his own party for opposing Donald Trump, the Michigan congressman left office earlier this week.
The speaker constitutionally does not have to be a sitting member in the House, though a non-sitting member has never held the position.
Upton served as a Republican in Congress from 1987 until Monday.
The grandson of the founder of whitegoods manufacturer Whirlpool, he is very wealthy.
“The single WORST person the Republicans could have as Speaker would be Fred Upton, almost worse than a Democrat,” Trump wrote on his social media platform.
“Remember, he QUIT when I wouldn’t endorse him. STONE COLD LOSER!”
Trump has endorsed Kevin McCarthy for the position.
And for now, the few moderates in the Republican caucus are backing McCarthy, while about 20 conservatives are resolutely opposed to him.
But one of those moderates, Don Bacon, told CNN that a deal with Democrats is already being discussed.
“There are preliminary talks, but we don’t want to go too fast on this because that then highjacks what Kevin is trying to do, and we want to support Kevin,” Bacon said.
“He’s worked hard to get this.”
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If McCarthy is unable to get to 218 votes, it is possible he will step aside in favour of another senior Republican, most likely Steve Scalise.
“But if at some point the small handful of folks who refuse to be part of the team after the conference overwhelmingly voted for Kevin, if they make it clear that they cannot be team players then we have to look somewhere else,” Bacon said.
“In the end, we have to govern.”
A compromise candidate is far from unprecedented.
On the same day the House deadlocked on a speaker vote, two state legislative lower chambers in Ohio and Pennsylvania elected compromise speakers on a bipartisan vote.
Without a speaker, the House of Representatives is unable to function.
The first vote in each session is to elect a speaker.
That vote is conducted by members-elect.
Until a speaker is elected, nobody can be sworn in to their positions, and no lawmaking can begin.
This week marks the first time in a century that a speaker was not elected on the first ballot.
So far, six ballots have been held this week for the position, with only a handful of representatives changing their votes.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has criticised the delay in choosing a speaker.
“I just think it’s really embarrassing it’s taking so long,” he said.
“The rest of the world is looking.”
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