13 months to choose a Speaker of the House
Of the more than 120 times since 1789 that the House has elected a new speaker, there have been only 14 instances in which the process required multiple ballots, according to the Congressional Research Service.
The drawn-out elevation of Mr. Banks to the speakership — a process that began in 1855 and ended in 1856 — was likened by the office of the House historian to a “recurring nightmare.”
The first vote began on a Monday in December 1855, with lawmakers holding four votes that day. There were “five more on Tuesday, six more on Wednesday, another six on Thursday, six again on Friday, and six more on Saturday,” according to the office.
Mr. Banks was not elected until early February 1856, a period in which no other congressional business was conducted. The stretch included a three-hour question-and-answer session for speaker candidates over the spread of slavery to the western territories.
The speaker race ended only after lawmakers, no doubt exhausted by their marathon voting sessions, approved a resolution creating a plurality winner. Mr. Banks won with just 103 votes.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/30/us/politics/house-speaker-election-mccarthy.amp.html
https://archive.is/Xz4Cw
It's been done before. So let it be again.
NEVER MCCARTHY