New Congress live updates: What's next after Kevin McCarthy's speakership win

"We stay in until we win," McCarthy said as he headed back onto the House floor ahead of the third round.

After huddling with Reps. Jim Jordan, Steve Scalise, Patrick McHenry and a few others off the floor, McCarthy told ABC News on his way back to the House floor that the prolonged vote was exactly what he was expecting to happen.

"This isn't about me; this is about the conference now," he said.

"If anybody wants to earn something, committee slots or others, you go through the conference to do that. You don't get it by leveraging people. It just doesn't happen," he added.

McCarthy disputed that he hasn't shown any progress throughout the afternoon.

"They put [Rep.] Jim Jordan [up as a candidate for speaker]. Remember how they all said they had a secret candidate. Their secret candidate nominated me, so where do they go now?"

-ABC News’ Katherine Faulders and Allison Pecorin

Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., switched his vote for speaker after voting for McCarthy in the first two rounds.

Donalds, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, backed Rep. Jim Jordan in the third round of voting. If every candidate who voted for Jordan on the second ballot does so again, the Ohioan will get at least 20 votes.

Ahead of the House entering a third vote for the speakership, Rep. Pete Aguilar again nominated Rep. Hakeem Jeffries for Democrats, prompting "Hakeem" chants from their side of the chamber, as Republicans remain in disarray.

"For unity in Congress and progress in our country, Democrats are united behind Hakeem Jeffries. I recommend Hakeem Jeffries as our speaker," Aguilar said to applause.

Rep. Chip Roy of Texas nominated Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, again, despite Jordan losing in prior votes, his saying he didn't want the position and asking Republicans to unite around McCarthy.

"Now, Jim has said he doesn't want that nomination, and Jim has been down here nominating Kevin, and I respect that. Again, I have no personal animus toward Kevin," Roy said. "But we do not have the tools or the leadership yet to stop the swamp from rolling over the American people. Jim has been doing it, he has a track record for doing that, and for those reasons, I'm nominating Jim Jordan for speaker of the House."

Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., McCarthy's No. 2, slammed McCarthy's critics as obstructionists to legislative efforts to tackle issues like immigration and energy reserves.

"We all came here to get things done. To get big things done. To solve the problems. And I hope when we get through today that all the members on both sides of the aisle will get together to solve the problems," he said when nominating McCarthy before the third round of voting.

However, he said, "we can't start fixing those problems until we elect Kevin McCarthy" as speaker.

Scalise's speech came after Jordan nominated McCarthy. Both men have been floated as potential alternatives if McCarthy is unable to win the majority needed to clinch the speakership.