WASHINGTON (AP) — House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy appealed to sharply divided fellow Republicans Thursday to back him for speaker at a time of turmoil and change. But the day's secret-ballot elections were shaping up as merely an early skirmish in the chaotic battle to lead the House.

As the day began, McCarthy and his two rivals to replace outgoing Speaker John Boehner addressed a closed-door meeting of the GOP rank and file in the basement of the Capitol, making final pitches ahead of elections to begin at noon.

Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, who's supporting McCarthy, said the 50-year-old Californian pitched himself as "a proven leader, a generational change in the speakership."

"Plus he listens very carefully," Brady said, "and as a result our conference will continue to have more power over the agenda, which is what we all want."

But McCarthy has failed to win over a small but crucial bloc in the House GOP: the hardline Freedom Caucus. This group of 30-plus uncompromising conservatives drove Boehner to resign by threatening a floor vote on his speakership. On the eve of Thursday's vote they announced they would oppose Boehner's No.2, McCarthy, and back one of his rivals instead, Rep. Daniel Webster of Florida, a former speaker of the Florida House.

The decision was a blow to McCarthy. Although there was little expectation that the group would back the Californian, there was much speculation that the sometimes disorganized hard-liners would be unable to rally around any of his opponents, either.

"Power doesn't like to give up its power, and so that's why many of us have gotten behind Mr. Webster," Rep. John Fleming of Louisiana, a Freedom Caucus member, said outside Thursday's meeting. "We feel that conservatives have been greatly marginalized by the current leadership."

Despite the opposition, McCarthy clearly has overwhelming support in the House GOP and was all but certain to emerge the winner Thursday over Webster and a third rival, Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. That would make McCarthy the House GOP nominee for speaker.

But his true test will come Oct. 29, when the full House will vote for speaker in open session. With Democrats certain to back Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, McCarthy will be able to lose only 29 votes and still gain the 218-vote majority he will need to prevail.

That situation would give the Freedom Caucus crucial leverage because if they continued to band together they might be able to block McCarthy from getting to 218 votes. That would send the House into uncertain territory — and perhaps increase the Freedom Caucus' leverage to exact concessions as members demand confrontations with President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats on issues of spending and debt.

It hasn't happened in decades, but in years past speaker elections have required multiple ballots before any candidate prevailed. Some of the more establishment-aligned lawmakers are voicing fears about such an outcome on Oct. 29.

"The concerns are that McCarthy wins and then you go the floor and all the Democrats vote for Pelosi and we have a group that doesn't vote for McCarthy and then it's a, uh, trying to think of the diplomatic term to use — turmoil," said Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio. "I don't know what the heck's going to happen. Because I don't see a logical ending."

McCarthy's challenge heading into Thursday's vote was to get a big vote total that would give him a commanding position over the next several weeks of maneuvering. For House Republicans it means three more weeks of the intrigue, infighting and disarray that have consumed them in the two weeks since Boehner announced he would be resigning at the end of October.

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Associated Press writers Andrew Taylor and Alan Fram contributed to this report.