Republican Mike Johnson elected House Speaker, ending three-week stalemate
Little-known Louisianan now oversees divided House GOP
Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson on Wednesday was elected Speaker of the House by a disgruntled Republican conference after three weeks of infighting that left Congress paralyzed. He is now the first House Speaker to hail from the Bayou State.
Johnson is not a household name on Capitol Hill. Even some Republicans admitted that they had to Google him when his name began to surface.
But thanks to his relative anonymity, along with GOP fatigue, the little-known Louisianan is now second in line to the presidency.
Johnson’s election comes after three failed Republican attempts to nominate a new Speaker following the ousting of Kevin McCarthy. Republicans settled on Johnson after more well-known leaders like Jim Jordan and Steve Scalise failed to secure enough support.
Speaker Johnson has been in Congress since 2017. He has no real leadership experience and does not have the fundraising skills of his predecessors. He raised more than $1 million throughout the entire 2022 campaign — just a fraction of soon-to-be Speaker McCarthy’s $28 million over the same period, federal reports show.
Nevertheless, the untested Johnson will soon find himself at the center of several major issues. The government is set to run out of money in mid-November, and President Joe Biden is asking Congress to send a sweeping aid package to Israel and Ukraine. With Democrats controlling the White House and the Senate, Johnson will soon find himself having to work across the aisle. President Biden and Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer both say they look forward to working with the new Speaker in a bipartisan way.
But Speaker Johnson is now in charge of a conference where many members do not seem to believe in governing. Not to mention, he does not have a bipartisan resumé himself. He holds conservative views on abortion, LGBTQ+ rights and gun control, which has many Democrats wondering if he will try to pursue any of these policies in his new role. He was also seen as the architect of congressional efforts to overturn the 2020 election, a position that seems to be a litmus test in today’s House Republican conference. Additionally, he opposed McCarthy’s short-term funding agreement earlier this fall.
Georgia’s Democratic and Republican lawmakers are divided on Johnson’s election. Republican Rep. Buddy Carter of Pooler called Johnson a “stalwart defender” of conservative values. “Mike is a dear friend, an effective legislator, and will make a fantastic Speaker of the House,” Rep. Carter said.
Meanwhile, Rep. Nikema Williams, who chairs the Democratic Party of Georgia, did not mince words about “extreme MAGA Rep. Mike Johnson.”
“Not only is Speaker Johnson an anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ extremist who wants to slash Social Security and Medicare – he also played a key role in trying to overturn the free and fair 2020 election results in Georgia,” the Atlanta Democrat said in a statement. “Georgians will not forget that all nine of their Republican representatives voted for an election-denying MAGA conspiracy theorist who tried to make sure their votes wouldn’t count.”