BREAKING: Kevin McCarthy wins nomination for House Speaker

Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has won the support of the majority of the GOP on Tuesday in an election to choose the party's nominee for Speaker of the House.

McCarthy won 188 votes while his opponent, Rep. Andy Biggs, won just 31 votes, according to Fox News. The ballots were submitted anonymously.



McCarthy now needs to win 218 votes to become Speaker of the new Congress. The majority party typically wins the vote.

McCarthy would become House Speaker in January if he were to obtain those 218 votes.

Republicans have not yet officially won enough congressional races to clinch the majority, though it is expected that they will. Republicans had 217 seats in the House on Tuesday evening to the Democrats' 205, according to the New York Times.

McCarthy's opponent, Bigs, was a  former chairman of the House Freedom Caucus. Some Republicans said publically that they would not support McCarthy, though others cautioned that the party had to be unified behind a single nominee.

"We have to elect Kevin McCarthy," Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said to reporters Monday. "I can’t support a challenge that will allow the Democrats to — to elect their own speaker by pulling some of ours." 

Rep. Steve Scalise also announced on Tuesday that he has been elected by fellow Republican House members as the House Majority Leader of the 118th Congress.

"It’s been an honor to fight for the American people as the Republican Whip for these past eight years, and I am humbled to be elected by my colleagues to serve as the Majority Leader in the new Republican-majority House of Representatives."

"By rejecting big government socialism, hardworking people all across America, from Portland, Oregon to Miami, Florida, elected a House Republican majority that will fight for them every day so we can get our country back on track, and we are ready to face this challenge."