U.S. Reps. Joe Neguse and Lauren Boebert briefly took center stage Thursday when the Colorado lawmakers nominated candidates for House speaker as Republicans failed for a third day to agree on a leader for the GOP-controlled chamber.

Neguse, a Lafayette Democrat, and Boebert, a Silt Republican, were among the House members-elect who took turns at the microphone during a series of votes amid an ongoing standoff between Republicans who back GOP leader Kevin McCarthy and 20 of their conservative colleagues, who voted on ballot after ballot to hand the gavel to someone other than the California Republican.

“The last several days have been difficult for the country and for the American people as they have watched what has unfolded in this chamber, as they have seen the dysfunction laid bare on the other side of the aisle,” said Neguse, who ranks No. 5 in House Democratic leadership, in a speech nominating his party’s leader, Hakeem Jeffries of New York.

Boebert denied hours earlier that there was anything wrong with the GOP’s inability to settle on a speaker right away.

“I want to get to work, too. Americans are tired of rhetoric and they want results,” she said in a speech nominating U.S. Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, the third speaker candidate she’s backed in as many days.

“This isn’t chaos – this is a constitutional republic at work,” Boebert added. “I’m a mom of four boys. I know what chaos and dysfunction looks like. This is actually a really beautiful thing to be here with all my colleagues, debating.”

After five nearly identical roll call votes that lasted into the night Thursday without yielding the required majority for McCarthy, Republicans voted to adjourn until Friday over Democrats’ objections, reportedly with hopes of sealing a deal to win over enough of the California Republican’s detractors.

The chamber’s Democrats united in vote after vote behind Jeffries, who finished ahead of McCarthy with 212 votes to the GOP leader’s 200 or 201, depending on how many members voted, with another 20 going to rival Republicans and one GOP member voting “present.”

In addition to Hern, who heads the House’s Republican Study Committee, others who received votes Thursday were Floridians U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds and former President Donald Trump – the latter under House rules that don’t require the speaker to be a member of the legislative body. 

It will take 218 votes for a candidate to win a majority and claim the speakership if every seated House member votes, though later Thursday U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, a Windsor Republican and McCarthy supporter, left the chamber for a medical appointment, lowering the majority threshold while he was absent to 217.

Allies of McCarthy, who also fell short in three votes Wednesday and three votes Tuesday, spent much of the day working out a compromise with his critics. Boebert, however, said late Thursday that she wasn’t at the table, telling reporters, “I am not a part of any negotiation.”

Later on social media, Boebert put it bluntly: “We are fighting to save America and we won’t back down.”

McCarthy’s detractors have demanded an array of concessions from the longtime GOP leader, including allowing a single member to compel a vote to remove the speaker and ironclad guarantees that the House will schedule floor votes on specific legislation, including setting congressional term limits and increasing security at the southern border.

Some of the Republicans aligned against McCarthy say they want a requirement that earmarked spending needs a two-thirds majority vote to pass, and others have insisted that party committees refrain from putting their thumb on the scale in House primaries for safely Republican open seats.

In order to win a majority, McCarthy can only afford to lose four or five fellow Republicans – depending on how many members cast votes – and Boebert has made clear she’s not inclined to support him or other members of her party’s House leadership, including U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, a McCarthy deputy proposed through the week as a possible alternative candidate.

The House can’t do much until the chamber designates a speaker, including swearing in members elected in November, setting rules for the 118th Congress or beginning work on legislation.

The House hasn’t taken more than 11 votes to choose a speaker since before the Civil War.

Boebert embraced the historic nature of the delay.

“When the country is being destroyed in unprecedented ways, sometimes you need to do unprecedented things to get it back on course,” she tweeted.

In her speech nominating Hern, Boebert said she would rather get it right than elect a speaker quickly.

“In the two years that we have served here in Washington, D.C., his is the most debate that has taken place, and I love it,” said Boebert, who was narrowly reelected to a second term in November. “I love the conversations that are going on the floor, in the cloakroom, in the halls.”

Referring to what she and her colleagues are asking for before throwing support behind a speaker candidate, Boebert added, “There’s nothing extreme, there’s nothing unreasonable. We’re trying to get this right. As my conservative colleagues and I have seen time and time again, Congress is broken and fundamentally needs change. I’m here to get this right.”

Neguse painted a different picture of the proceedings in his speech nominating Jeffries, who, he noted, is the first African-American congressional party leader.

Noting that McCarthy supporters had made historic references in their nominating speeches, Neguse credited House Democrats with bringing an end to a federal government shutdown four years earlier, soon after he was sworn in to his first term. He then invoked Friday’s two-year anniversary of the Capitol riot that forced lawmakers to flee for their safety before convening later to certify President Joe Biden’s election.

“If we want to talk about history, let’s talk about recent history two years ago tomorrow,” Negsue said. “With so many of you in this chamber, as our democracy was attacked, as our colleagues on the other side of the aisle tried to overturn an election – and the country yet again is looking to House Democrats to lead and to govern – and that is exactly what we did when we certified the election and we safeguarded the transfer of power.”

“So, here we find ourselves again in unprecedented times, in the early days of the 118th Congress – the first time in over 100 years in which the House of Representatives is unable to organize because the House Republican conference cannot select a speaker,” he continued. “It’s a sad day for this institution. But the country will do what it has done before. It will look to House Democrats to govern and to lead and, under the leadership of Hakeem Jeffries, that is exactly what we will do.”

U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, a Colorado Springs Republican and staunch McCarthy ally, issued a statement late Thursday calling out fellow Republicans for blocking the GOP leader.

“Right now, as the vote for speaker is being held hostage by a small faction of our party, the Biden administration is going unchecked. There is no oversight of the White House, State Department, Department of Defense, or the intelligence community, and the border remains open,” he said. “We cannot let personal politics place the safety and security of the United States at risk.”

Added Lamborn: “That is why I am urging my colleagues in Congress to join me in supporting Representative Kevin McCarthy for Speaker of the House. Under his leadership, the Republican-led House can get to work for the American people and stop the far-Left from pushing our nation towards socialism and insolvency.”

The House is scheduled to convene for what could be a 12th round of voting at 10 a.m. MST Friday.