WASHINGTON - Republican leader Kevin McCarthy suffered yet another blow at the hands of a group of dissidents from his party, who blocked him from becoming Speaker in a sixth round of voting 

Here are six potential candidates to become Speaker of the US House of Representatives if Mr McCarthy fails to win the post.

Steve Scalise

The No. 2 House Republican is a supporter of Mr McCarthy who could get support from moderates in the caucus, while also appealing to hardline conservatives. However, some moderate Republicans have suggested there would be no point in tossing Mr McCarthy only to nominate someone so ideologically similar to him.

For his part, Mr Scalise, of Louisiana, has said that he supports Mr McCarthy and has repeatedly voted for him.

Jim Jordan

The Ohio congressman is leader of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of the most hardline House conservatives. Mr Jordan has repeatedly supported Mr McCarthy in Speaker votes, but all 20 holdouts voted for him on Tuesday.

Byron Donalds

Mr Donalds will be sworn in for only his second term in Congress once the Speaker is chosen, but his far-right views have endeared him to the group of holdouts. During the third vote on Tuesday, he joined their ranks in supporting Mr Jordan, rather than Mr McCarthy.

On Wednesday, he was nominated for speaker three times, winning all 20 holdout votes each time.

Fred Upton

The long-time Republican was first elected in 1986 and did not seek reelection to Congress in 2022. He could get support from Democrats as a moderate who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump in 2021.

He signalled his openness to running for Speaker to The Detroit News on Tuesday, calling the suggestion “intriguing.” The Speaker is usually a lawmaker from the majority party, but it could be an outsider.

Justin Amash

A former Republican lawmaker from Michigan, Mr Amash was both a co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus and the first Republican to call for Mr Trump’s impeachment.

He left his party in 2020 to join the Libertarian Party and did not seek reelection that year. He has been a vocal critic of the bureaucracy and backroom politics in Washington, and was at the Capitol on Wednesday putting himself forward as potential Speaker.

Hakeem Jeffries

Mr Jeffries was unanimously elected to lead his party in November, and has held all 212 Democratic votes during each of the six ballots. However, it is extremely unlikely that any Republican would agree to support his bid for Speaker regardless of any power sharing agreement, given the political fallout from doing so. REUTERS