Republican Jim Jordan has lost his third bid to become US House of Representatives Speaker, amid signs of growing rebellion in the party.
The right-wing Ohioan again fell well short of the 217 votes needed with 25 Republicans voting against him, three more than on the second ballot.
The House has had no Speaker since Kevin McCarthy was ousted two weeks ago.
It is so far unclear if Mr Jordan will press ahead with another vote.
Republicans have announced they will hold a closed-door meeting at 13:00 local time (17:00 GMT).
Democrats once again voted unanimously for their leader, casting 210 ballots for Hakeem Jeffries of New York.
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- Why Jim Jordan thinks he’s winning, even as he loses
Without a permanent Speaker, the lower house of Congress has been left paralysed for more than two weeks, unable to pass bills or to respond to President Joe Biden’s request for emergency aid for Ukraine and Israel.
In a rare primetime address on Thursday night, Mr Biden made his pitch for the emergency aid request.
Mr Biden, who is a Democrat, did not explicitly address the political dysfunction in the House of Representatives, but acknowledged “divisions at home”.
“We have to get past them,” he said. “We can’t let petty, partisan, angry politics get in the way of our responsibility as a great nation. We cannot and will not let terrorists like Hamas and tyrants like Putin win. I refuse to let that happen.”
As opposition to Mr Jordan continues to grow, there is no obvious path forward for House Republicans.
Florida Representative Matt Gaetz – one of the eight Republicans who voted to remove McCarthy – said after Mr Jordan’s third loss that he and the other seven lawmakers were willing to face punishment if that would help secure Mr Jordan’s speakership.
The Jordan-holdouts “have no goals, have no asks, have no objectives except to see the eight of us suffer some consequences for ousting McCarthy”, Mr Gaetz told reporters on Friday. “If what these holdouts need is a pound of our flesh, we are willing to do it for them.”
As the stalemate continues, members of both parties, including two former Republican Speakers, have floated the option of extending interim Speaker Mr McHenry’s powers until January to allow him to preside over urgent legislative matters.
But many right-wing Republicans strongly oppose the plan, saying it would be a win for Democrats.