House Speaker Kevin McCarthy suffered a major defeat at the hands of his conference with nearly two dozen Republicans joining Democrats to crush his stopgap spending bill. 

Lawmakers voted against the measure in spectacular fashion, sinking the bill 198 to 232, with 21 GOP lawmakers joining all the chamber’s Democrats in voting no.

The bill’s failure all but guaranteed a partial government shutdown at midnight Saturday.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, Florida Republican, led the contingent of conservatives who vowed to never vote for short-term spending legislation. Those lawmakers have been firm in their commitment to passing spending bills one by one rather than voting for a stopgap bill.

They voted down Mr. McCarthy’s last-ditch effort to avert a shutdown despite the bill containing a conservative wishlist of spending cuts and border security measures. 

“Right now my sole focus is on getting our single subject spending bills passed,” Mr. Gaetz said. “The speaker’s continuing resolution went down in flames as I’ve told you all week it would.” 

• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washigtontimes.com.