Nick Langworthy, who is currently serving as chair of the New York State Republican Committee, greets supporters at the Elbow Room restaurant in Elmira, N.Y., Monday, Aug. 22, 2022. AP photo

Rep. Nick Langworthy is voting steadfastly for Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., to be the next Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Langworthy, who defeated Max Della Pia to serve as Chautauqua County’s representative in the House of Representatives, voted for McCarthy in each of the 11 votes that have been held since Tuesday. Voting continued Friday as McCarthy and rank-and-file Republicans worked to resolve the impasse.

At the core of the emerging deal is the reinstatement of a House rule that would allow a single lawmaker to make a motion to “vacate the chair,” essentially calling a vote to oust the speaker. McCarthy had resisted allowing it, because it had been held over the head of past Republican Speaker John Boehner, chasing him to early retirement.

The chairman of the chamber’s Freedom Caucus, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, who had been a leader in Trump’s efforts to challenge the 2020 presidential election, appeared receptive to the proposed package, tweeting the adage from Ronald Reagan, “Trust but verify.”

Other wins for the holdouts include provisions in the proposed deal to expand the number of seats available on the House Rules Committee, to mandate 72 hours for bills to be posted before votes and to promise to try for a constitutional amendment that would impose federal limits on the number of terms a person could serve in the House and Senate.

Though Langworthy and the rest of the House have yet to actually take their oaths of office, they can vote to select a speaker as their first order of business. The chamber cannot organize until it has a speaker since that person effectively serves as the House’s presiding officer and the institution’s administrative head. The House can elect a new speaker at any time if the person occupying that role dies, resigns or is removed from office. Barring that, a speaker is normally elected at the start of a new Congress.

In the weeks after an election, the Republican conference and the Democratic caucus hold an informal vote among their members to decide who they want to nominate to lead their party in January. McCarthy won the majority of the Republican vote in a closed-door November meeting. Weeks later, Democrats unanimously chose Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., to become their leader as the party transitions into the minority. But, once the session began on Jan. 3, members are not obligated to vote for the party’s chosen candidate. While it has been the tradition for the speaker candidate to be a member of the House, it is not required. In past years, President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump and even a senator, Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky, have received votes for House speaker.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report