Johnson elected US House speaker in close vote
Republican Mike Johnson narrowly succeeded in retaining his position as House speaker, a dramatic and highly anticipated vote that marked the beginning of full Republican control of Washington.
With Republicans’ razor-thin control of Congress, Johnson could only lose two votes. Although he nearly lost re-election, he survived the vote after some lobbying.
President-elect Donald Trump previously endorsed Johnson as House speaker, saying “Mike’s victory today would be a major victory for the Republican Party.”
The Speaker of the House of Representatives is one of the most powerful positions in Washington, controlling the lower house of Congress and ranking second in the presidential office after the Vice President.
Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, received support from nearly all Republicans in his re-election bid.
But this success has not been without controversy.
The speaker’s vote requires a candidate to receive the support of a majority of the House of Representatives (218 votes). But with the Republican majority in the House of Representatives narrow, Johnson can only face opposition from two Republicans.
Johnson had already been roundly rebuffed by Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie.
“You could pull out all my fingernails. You could put bamboo in there. You could start cutting off my fingers. I’m not going to vote for Mike Johnson,” Massie said in a television interview Thursday.
Several other Republicans also placed themselves in the “undecided” category ahead of the vote.
In the initial vote, three undecided Republicans voted for other lawmakers instead of Johnson, preventing him from reaching the 218 votes needed.
Three lawmakers — Massie, South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman and Texas Rep. Keith Self — have floated other options to be the next speaker.
This led Johnson to flee the House and lobby members to support him. About 45 minutes later, he returned to the House chamber.
Both Norman and Self switched their votes to support Johnson.
The gavel struck and Johnson won re-election.
Norman told reporters after the election that he changed his vote after speaking with Johnson in a room outside the House chamber.
He said Johnson told him that during the negotiations there would be more conservatives at the table, fewer deals would be struck between congressional and committee leadership without outside input from other lawmakers, and Allow plenty of time to read the text of the bill before voting.
“He convinced me and Keith (Self) when we left that little room,” Norman said. “He (Johnson) said I would do it, just give me the chance. He knows, and I know, that if you get to the second round, it’s going to get harder and harder.”
Another player in the tense speaker race is President-elect Donald Trump.
Norman spoke to Trump twice during the speakership vote.
The first time was when Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina, handed him her cell phone to speak with the president-elect. The second time was during a meeting with Johnson, Self and several others.
“(Trump) was just as enthusiastic,” Norman said of the call with the president-elect. “He said, ‘Norman, we have the best chance we’ve ever had — House, Senate, three in a row, and you don’t have that chance.'” I said, ‘Mr. President, I agree with you, I just hope Mike has the skills to get it done. ‘
Norman said the president-elect also said Johnson was the only one who could win the speakership.
Self told reporters after the vote that he spoke with Trump around the time of the speakership election.
He said he changed his mind when Johnson promised there would be more members at the table, including members from the far-right House Freedom Caucus.
“We supported the reconciliation team because we knew that was going to be the heavy lifting to move the Trump agenda over the reconciliation line,” he said.
Friday is the first day of the 119th Congress. Republicans have unified control of Washington, with majorities in both the House and Senate, and Trump is set to return to the White House later in January.
In his acceptance speech, Johnson said that this Congress will embrace the concept of “America First” – a slogan proposed by Trump.
After Trump was re-elected, he said Americans demanded that their own interests be put first again.
“We will,” Johnson said.
Voting for a new Speaker is the first requirement of the new session of Congress, and without this leader in place, the House of Representatives cannot continue to perform any other functions.
This has caused confusion in the past, including when former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had to go through 15 rounds of voting before being confirmed to the leadership position.
Minutes before Friday’s vote, Johnson posted on X several of his plans if elected.
He promised to create a “task force of independent experts” to work with the Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE), which Trump appointed Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Republican Vivek Ra Vivek Ramaswamy heads the ministry.
He said the task force will review existing audits of federal agencies and entities created by Congress and issue a report.
“If we want to restore fiscal responsibility, we must first be transparent about the dollars we spend, address the problems we identify, and then hold accountable those who misuse funds,” Johnson wrote.
