WASHINGTON (AP) — For a long and frustrating third day, divided Republicans left the speaker's chair of the U.S. House sitting empty Thursday, as party leader Kevin McCarthy failed and failed again in an excruciating string of ballots to win enough GOP votes to seize the chamber's gavel.

Pressure was building as McCarthy lost a seventh, eighth and historic ninth round of voting, tying the number it took the last time this happened, 100 years ago, in a prolonged fight to choose a speaker in a disputed election.

With his supporters and foes locked in stalemate, feelings of boredom and desperatio...