As of Thursday morning, there is still no speaker of the House. This is the third day of the House of Representatives’ new two-year session, and so far, it is in a state of limbo. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of California failed to secure his bid for House speaker on six separate ballots, which prevents House members from being sworn in or working on any legislative business.

In the 2022 midterms, Republicans’ won such a slim majority in the House, that choosing a speaker requires near consensus among the party’s members. But the nearly unprecedented chaos that has ensued this week suggests that there may not be a single Republican party. Instead, the GOP just might be the big tent gathering spot for several loosely affiliated coalitions. A majority of the 20 conservative defectors who are holding the House hostage are part of the House’s right-wing Freedom Caucus.

For more we spoke with Nicole Hemmer, political historian at Vanderbilt University and author of "Partisans: The Conservative Revolutionaries Who Remade American Politics in the 1990s."