Representative Kevin McCarthy of California won election early Saturday as US House speaker in a historic five-day, 15-ballot floor fight, after giving major concessions to right-wing holdouts that would weaken his power and hand them outsize influence at the dawn of the new Republican majority.

Mr. McCarthy clawed his way to victory by cutting a deal that won over a sizable contingent of ultraconservative lawmakers on the 12th and 13th votes earlier in the day, and then wearing down the remaining holdouts in a tense late-night session, ultimately winning with a bare majority, after a spectacle of arm-twisting drama on the House floor, reports New York Times.

The protracted fight foreshadowed how difficult it would be for him to govern with an exceedingly narrow majority and an unruly hard-right faction bent on slashing spending and disrupting business in Washington. The speakership struggle that crippled the House before it had even opened its session suggested that basic tasks such as passing government funding bills or financing the federal debt would prompt epic struggles over the next two years.

Yet Mr. McCarthy, who was willing to endure vote after humiliating failed vote and give in to an escalating list of demands from his opponents to secure the post, denied that the process foretold any dysfunction.

"This is the great part," he told reporters. "Because it took this long, now we learned how to govern."

The floor fight dragged on for the better part of a week, the longest since 1859, and paralyzed the House, with lawmakers stripped of their security clearances because they could not be sworn in as official members of Congress until a speaker was chosen.

By Friday afternoon, Mr. McCarthy had won over 15 of the 21 Republicans who had defected, and he pressed into the night for more converts, a remarkable turnabout for a man who only days before appeared to be headed for defeat. His path was narrow until the end; only a few of the six remaining holdouts were seen as open to negotiating further.