By Dave Ryan

Republican Eastern Shore Congressman Andy Harris helped break the deadlocked vote for House Speaker last week when he finally backed Californian Kevin McCarthy on the 13th ballot.

Two more rounds were needed before McCarthy finally achieved the post in the early hours of Saturday.

After three days of tense votes and animated discussions on the House floor, six members voted “present,” thereby lowering the threshold for McCarthy’s victory.

They were Andy Biggs and Eli Crane of Arizona, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Bob Good of Virginia and Matthew M. Rosendale of Montana.

The final tally was 216-212, with Democrats having voted unanimously in all rounds for their leader, Hakeem Jeffries of New York.

Harris was one of 20 holdouts in previous rounds.

His votes from the first through the 13th were for Jim Jordan of Ohio – three times; Biggs of Arizona – five times; and Byron Donalds of Florida – four times; and finally McCarthy.

McCarthy’s losses broke a congressional record – not since 1859 had it taken more than nine rounds to elect a speaker.

The holdouts, including Harris, held firm against McCarthy through Wednesday and Thursday, as negotiations continued, with concessions being made in exchange for their support.

Unlike other members of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, Harris was quiet publicly as the votes continued under national scrutiny.

After voting for McCarthy on Friday, however, he released an official statement.

“Washington and Congress are broken. If the agreement we were able to finalize over the last few days is implemented, it will be the greatest change in how the House operates and becomes much more responsive to the American people in at least two generations.”

Included in the goals of the Freedom Caucus were rule changes that would make it easier for a smaller group of members to challenge leadership, and to have members placed in various committees, including the House Rules Committee, which debates legislation before it moves to the floor.

The House passed those rules changes in a mostly party-line vote Monday.

According to a report over the weekend in Politico, Harris had made his vote for McCarthy contingent on receiving chairmanship of the Appropriations subcommittee on Labor, Health, Human Services and Education.

The Politico report said Harris felt alienated after a small group of McCarthy’s supporters floated removal from committees as a punishment for anyone who voted against McCarthy. Separately, Politico reported, irritated senior appropriators personally warned McCarthy to reject Harris’ power play.

Eventually, according to Politico, private talks among Harris, McCarthy and other senior Republicans resulted in a decision that Harris would not be punished for flipping his vote. That included preserving his House Appropriation Committee seniority; Harris decided to drop his objections.