WASHINGTON (AP) In his quest to rise to House speaker, Kevin McCarthy is charging straight into history potentially becoming the first nominee in 100 years unable to win the job on a first-round floor vote.

The increasingly real prospect of a messy fight over the speakers gavel on Day One of the new Congress on Jan. 3 is worrying House Republicans , who are bracing for the spectacle. They have been meeting endlessly in private at the Capitol trying to resolve the standoff.

Taking hold of a perilously slim 222-seat Republican majority in the 435-member House and facing a handful of defectors, McCarthy is working furiously to reach the 218-vote threshold typically needed to become speaker.

The fear is, that if we stumble out of the gate, said Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., a McCarthy ally, then the voters who sent the Republicans to Washington will revolt over that and they will feel let down.

Not since the disputed election of 1923 has a candidate for House speaker faced the public scrutiny of convening a new session of Congress only to have it descend into political chaos, with one vote after another, until a new speaker is chosen. At that time, it eventually took a grueling nine ballots to secure the gavel.

McCarthy, a Republican from Bakersfield, California, who was first elected in 2006 and who remains allied with Donald Trump , has signaled he is willing to go as long as it takes in a floor vote to secure the speakers job he has wanted for years. The former president has endorsed McCarthy, and is said to be making calls on McCarthys behalf. McCarthy has given no indication he would step aside, as he did in 2015 when it was clear he did not have the support.

But McCarthy also is acknowledging the holdouts wont budge. Its all in jeopardy, McCarthy said Friday in an interview with conservative Hugh Hewitt.