After three weeks in limbo, the U.S. House of Representatives has elected Mike Johnson of Louisiana as its speaker, filling the vacancy created when Kevin McCarthy was ousted in a historic vote last month.
Never had a Speaker of the House of Representatives been ousted from power, until when a small group of Republican congressmen rebelled against Kevin McCarthy and ejected him from the speakership. These congressmen form the right wing of the GOP, and were angered by their belief that McCarthy had not maintained certain promises they alleged were made when he was elected speaker. In particular, they focused on how an agreement was made to pass a 45-day funding bill to keep the government running until a more comprehensive bill could pass the House and Senate. Since then, the House has been aimless, unable to pass legislation, or work on the full funding bill, until a new speaker was elected. Several Republican candidates stepped up to attempt to mount the dais, but all fell short of a majority of the House until Mike Johnson was able to pull together a majority of members.
The reason that this took three weeks is simple: The Republican Party is fractured, and nowhere is this seen more than in the House. To say a few, the Republicans are a coalition of the Christian right, libertarians, conservatives, and more recently, Trumpist populists. The Speaker of the House is elected by a majority of those present, and with the GOP’s relatively slim majority in the chamber, candidates had to win the support of almost all in their party to receive the gavel. The three speaker candidates before Mike Johnson: Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan, and Tom Emmer, were more prominent members of the party, but did not find this universal support. Mike Johnson, who was previously considered a relatively unknown member of the GOP conference, found wide support and rode it to the dais.
Mike Johnson was able to find this universal support because he represents different parts of the Republican Party very well. Johnson is a social conservative that is strong opposed to both gay marriage and abortion. Johnson has been noted for his efficiency and his affability, forming good relationships with other lawmakers, and although he has only been in Congress for four terms, has held several leadership positions such as Vice Chair of the House Republican Committee, and Deputy Majority Whip. Most importantly, Mike Johnson has a very close relationship with President Donald Trump, being a leader in the attempt to overturn the 2020 election; The New York Times called him “The most important architect of the Electoral College objections.”
Although he does have connections all across the GOP, it is only under extraordinary circumstances that Johnson has been elected. Normally, the speakership would be entrusted upon a congressman with more time spent in government. However, the need for a speaker now to pass more budget bills, and the need to please Mark Gaetz’s right wing, has formed the perfect opportunity for now-Speaker Johnson to take power.
The Speaker’s first and currently most important job to undertake is to fix the issue of the budget. The reason that a new speaker was needed in the first place was the 45-day spending bill McCarthy passed with the help of Democrats. These 45 days end on November 17, and starting at 11:59 p.m. that night, the US government will shut down. There is no definitive account of how much money each department has left over, but even crucial government affairs may run out of money soon thereafter. In the meantime, Johnson has informed the public that he will attempt to pass a second stop-gap bill, funding the government until January or April, in order to give him and his colleagues more time to put together a more comprehensive budget bill.
