WASHINGTON — House lawmakers on Wednesday elected little-known Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana as the 56th speaker of the House on Wednesday, capping more than three weeks of dysfunction and chaos on Capitol Hill.
It’s a stunning rise for the conservative Donald Trump ally and low-ranking member of the GOP leadership team who is now second in line to the presidency. Johnson is arguably the most ideologically conservative person to serve as speaker since Newt Gingrich in the 1990s, and he played an instrumental role in the GOP’s effort to overturn the 2020 election.
After weeks of disarray, the GOP demonstrated remarkable unity: All 220 Republicans cast their vote for Johnson, while all 209 Democrats voted for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York.
“A friend to all and an enemy to none,” House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., said as she nominated Johnson before the vote.
Johnson’s election on the floor represents a temporary cease-fire in a GOP civil war that began when Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and seven other GOP rebels teamed with Democrats to oust Republican Kevin McCarthy from the speaker’s office.
In the ensuing weeks, various factions of the 221-member GOP Conference clashed over who should succeed McCarthy, paralyzing the lower chamber and preventing any legislative work from proceeding amid a new threat of a government shutdown and wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Johnson’s work will start immediately. He’ll have to work within his party and with the Biden White House to figure out how to fund the government before money runs out on Nov. 17 and on delivering critical aid packages to U.S. allies, Ukraine and Israel.
The GOP’s process for picking a new speaker resembled the arcade game Whac-a-Mole. Republicans first nominated the No. 2 leader, Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana, who dropped out less than 36 hours later after opponents blocked his path to 217 floor votes.
Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, was up next, but after three failed floor votes, he, too, bowed out of the running. The party next selected Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., the No. 3 Republican, as their pick, but he realized he couldn’t amass 217 votes either after Trump came out against him, and he quit just hours after winning the nomination.
Johnson was able to unite the fractured conference through a combination of good timing, his conservatism and his reputation for a pleasant demeanor. Johnson emerged as his colleagues were growing increasingly fatigued from the drawn-out speaker crisis; he had the backing of Trump and his close allies; and during his short four terms in Congress, the well-liked Johnson made few political enemies in the Capitol.
As GOP Conference vice chairman, a post he has held since 2021, Johnson is the seventh-ranking Republican on the leadership team. His elevation to speaker from such a low-level post is extremely rare and reminiscent of former Illinois Republican Rep. Denny Hastert’s rise in 1999 from chief deputy whip to speaker in the wake of former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s resignation.
Johnson, 51, who has represented his northwestern Louisiana district since 2017, makes history as the first speaker ever elected from that state. His election also means that the top two Republicans in leadership — himself and Scalise — now hail from the Bayou State.
Johnson is a protege of both Scalise and Jordan and has served under Jordan on the Judiciary Committee. A lawyer with expertise in constitutional law, Johnson chairs the panel’s subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government.
A Trump ally, Johnson was one of the leaders of the GOP effort to keep the former president in power after his defeat to Joe Biden in 2020. Johnson led the amicus brief, signed by 100 Republicans, backing a Texas lawsuit seeking to invalidate the 2020 election results in four swing states won by Biden.
In fact, the New York Times called Johnson “the most important architect of the Electoral College objections.”
Summer Concepcion and Sahil Kapur contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
