Republicans elect Trump ally Mike Johnson as US House speaker, filling leadership vacuum
- The conservative lawmaker was an architect of the ex-US president’s legal effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election he lost
- Johnson’s rise comes after three weeks of chaos, as House Republicans sought to fill the seat left vacant after they ousted their own leader, Kevin McCarthy
Republicans eagerly elected congressman Mike Johnson as House speaker on Wednesday, elevating a deeply conservative but lesser-known leader to the seat of US power and ending for now the political chaos in their majority.
Johnson of Louisiana swept on the first ballot with support from all Republicans anxious to put the past weeks of tumult behind and get on with the business of governing.
A lower-ranked member of the House Republican leadership team, Johnson emerged as party’s the fourth nominee in what has become an almost absurd cycle of political infighting since Kevin McCarthy’s ousting as rival factions jockey for power.
While not the party’s top choice for the gavel, the deeply religious and even-keeled Johnson has few foes and an important backer: Donald Trump.
“I think he’s gonna be a fantastic speaker,” Trump said on Wednesday at the New York courthouse where the former US president, who is now the Republican front runner for president in 2024, is on trial over a lawsuit alleging business fraud.
Trump said he hadn’t heard “one negative comment about him. Everybody likes him.”
Three weeks on without a House speaker, the Republicans have been wasting their majority status – a maddening embarrassment to some, democracy in action to others, but not at all how the House is expected to function.
Far-right members have refused to accept a more traditional speaker, and moderate conservatives do not want a hardliner. While Johnson had no opponents during the private roll-call late on Tuesday, some two dozen Republicans did not vote, more than enough to sink his nomination.
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But when Republican Conference Chair congresswoman Elise Stefanik rose to introduce Johnson’s name on Wednesday as their nominee, Republicans jumped to their feet for an extended standing ovation.
“House Republicans and Speaker Mike Johnson will never give up,” she said.
Democrats again nominated their leader congressman Hakeem Jeffries of New York, criticising Johnson as an architect of Trump’s legal effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election he lost.
With Republicans controlling the House only 221-212 over Democrats, Johnson could afford just a few detractors to win the gavel.
Overnight the endorsements for Johnson started pouring in, including from failed speaker hopefuls – congressman Jim Jordan, the hard-charging Judiciary Committee chairman, gave his support, as did Majority Leader Steve Scalise, the fellow Louisiana congressman, who stood behind Johnson after he won the nomination.
“Mike! Mike! Mike!” lawmakers chanted at a press conference after the late-night internal vote, surrounding Johnson and posing for selfies in a show of support.
Anxious and exhausted, Republican lawmakers are desperately trying to move on.
Johnson’s rise comes after a tumultuous month, capped by a head-spinning Tuesday that within a span of a few hours saw one candidate, congressman Tom Emmer, the Republican Whip, nominated and then quickly withdraw when it became clear he would be the third candidate unable to secure enough support from party colleagues after Trump bashed his nomination.
“He wasn’t MAGA,” said Trump, referring to his Make America Great Again campaign slogan.
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Attention quickly turned to Johnson. A lawyer specialising in constitutional issues, Johnson had rallied Republicans around Trump’s legal effort to overturn the 2020 election results.
Elevating Johnson to speaker gives Louisianans two high-ranking Republican leaders, putting him above Scalise, who was rejected by hardliners in his own bid as speaker.
Deeply religious, Johnson is affable and well liked, with a fiery belief system. Colleagues swiftly started giving their support.
“Democracy is messy sometimes, but it is our system,” Johnson said after winning the nomination. “We’re going to restore your trust in what we do here.”
Republican congressman Matt Gaetz, who led a small band of hardliners to engineer McCarthy’s ousting at the start of the month, posted on social media that “Mike Johnson won’t be the Speaker the Swamp wants but, he is the Speaker America needs.”
Republicans have been flailing all month, unable to conduct routine business as they fight among themselves with daunting challenges ahead.
The federal government risks a shutdown in a matter of weeks if Congress fails to pass funding legislation by a November 17 deadline to keep services and offices running.
More immediately, US President Joe Biden has asked Congress to provide US$105 billion in aid – to help Israel and Ukraine amid their wars and to shore up the US border with Mexico. Federal aviation and farming programmes face expiration without action.
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Many hardliners have been resisting a leader who voted for the budget deal that McCarthy struck with Biden earlier this year, which set federal spending levels that far-right Republicans do not agree with and now want to undo. They are pursuing steeper cuts to federal programmes and services with next month’s funding deadline.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia said she wanted assurances the candidates would pursue impeachment inquiries into Biden and other top Cabinet officials.
During the turmoil, the House was led by a speaker pro tempore, congressman Patrick McHenry, the bow tie-wearing chairman of the Financial Services Committee. His main job was to elect a more permanent speaker.
Some Republicans – and Democrats – wanted to give McHenry more power to get on with the routine business of governing. But McHenry, the first person to be in the position that was created in the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks as an emergency measure, declined to back those overtures. He, too, received a standing ovation.
