Jim Jordan has won the Republican nomination to lead the US House of Representatives, but the hardline conservative appears well short of the support he needs to seize the Speaker's gavel.
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Successive closed-door votes left Jordan with the backing of a majority of House Republicans on Friday, but still shy of the 217 votes he would need to win the job.
Republicans then said they would go home for the weekend, ensuring the House would remain without a leader until at least Monday.
Republican infighting has left the House paralysed for close to two weeks, as lawmakers have deadlocked over a successor to Kevin McCarthy, who was forced out by a small group of Republicans on October 3.
In an initial vote, Jordan won the endorsement over Austin Scott, a Georgia lawmaker who has kept a relatively low profile in his 12 years in Congress. The vote was 124-81, according to a Republican aide who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Jordan did not pick up much more support in a second round of voting, which he won 152-55, according to lawmakers, meaning that about one in four House Republicans cast a ballot purely against Jordan.
That left him short of the votes he would need to become Speaker, a powerful role second in line to the presidency after the vice president.
Republicans control the chamber by a narrow 221-212 margin, meaning they can afford to lose no more than four votes if Democrats vote against him, as they are expected to do.
Some Republicans said their problems ran deeper than a simple lack of leadership.
Jordan, 59, would be a departure from past Republican leaders like McCarthy, who have focused on raising money and balancing competing ideological groups.
He has been a vocal presence on the party's right wing and tormentor of party leaders since he was first elected in 2006.
A close ally of Donald Trump, he helped amplify the former president's false claims of fraud in the 2020 election and secured Trump's endorsement last week.
As chair of the Judiciary Committee, Jordan is helping to lead an impeachment investigation into Democratic President Joe Biden that Democrats characterise as baseless.
"I think I can unite the conference, I think I can tell the country what we're doing and why it matters," Jordan told reporters before the vote.
Democrats who have suggested working with Republicans on a consensus speaker pick said Jordan was not what they had in mind.
Without a Speaker, the House is at a deadlock as war expands in the Middle East, Russia continues to pound Ukraine and the government faces a November 17 partial shutdown deadline without additional funding from Congress.
Australian Associated Press
