House Republican vows to stay through the weekend if needed — even if he misses his mom's funeral

On Friday, POLITICO's Olivia Beavers reported that Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK) is now planning to stay in Washington, D.C. for as long as is necessary to get GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) elected Speaker of the House.

This comes in spite of the fact that Hern's mother recently passed away. Previous reports indicated that he would be leaving town to attend her funeral over the weekend — something he now seems prepared to skip if he is forced to.

Hern is one of multiple Republican members who are missing personal engagements amid the Speaker battle. Some of the others are planning to return to the House floor for the weekend.

McCarthy has now lost over a dozen votes for Speaker, marking the first time this has happened since the 19th century.

A group of far-right members have demanded a series of rule changes that would weaken the power of the Speakership while empowering their own pet issues. McCarthy has reportedly caved on most of their demands, winning over some of the holdouts.

The problem is that some of the holdouts, like Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), have made clear they will not vote for McCarthy under any circumstances, no matter what he offers them — and this group may still have enough votes on their own to block McCarthy, who can only lose a minimum of four members in his own party, assuming that all Democrats are in attendance and vote against him.