Mike Johnson of Louisiana takes over as Speaker of the House: NAJ screen shot

Staff Report –

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Little known Louisiana arch-conservative Mike Johnson managed to do what others could not. He managed to get 220 votes and was elected Speaker of the House on Wednesday, bringing an end to three weeks of chaos that left the chamber without a leader and put Republican divisions on display for the country to see.

Johnson, 51, a far right Christian conservative who opposes abortion rights and same-sex marriage also denies climate change, saying global warming is not being caused by the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas for energy and transportation. He’s opposed clean energy and received more campaign contributions from oil and gas companies than from any other industry last year. He also played a leading role in congressional efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

But he was able to get the votes others could not, including right-wing flame thrower Jim Jordon and another Louisiana conservative, Steve Scalise.

Republicans jumped to their feet and applauded after Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, the interim speaker, declared that Johnson was the “duly elected speaker of the House of Representatives.”

The vote places him second in line to the presidency, after the Vice President, and brings to a close an extraordinary period of twists and turns on Capitol Hill with a brutal stretch of infighting that unleashed a barrage of recriminations and violent threats against members even in the same party. The far right Dixie Caucus that has become a dominant force in the Republican Party rose up and effectively dictated the removal of an establishment speaker and the installation of an arch-conservative replacement.

In a speech that traced his ascent up the political ladder in Louisiana to Congress, Johnson pledged to try to “restore the people’s faith in this House.” He cited sending aid to Israel, fixing a “broken” southern border, and reining in federal spending as his top legislative priorities.

“The challenge before us is great, but the time for action is now,” Johnson said shortly after he was elected. “And I will not let you down.”

Evoking his evangelical Christian faith, Johnson repeatedly referenced scripture.

“The Bible is very clear that God is the one that raises up those in authority,” he said. “He raised up each of you, all of us. And I believe that God has ordained and allowed each one of us to be brought here for this specific time.”

In a nod to the simmering frustrations among the hard-right flank of the party that ultimately deposed McCarthy, the California Republican, Johnson pledged that his office “is going to be known for decentralizing power.”

Elected to Congress in 2016, Johnson is the most junior lawmaker in decades to become speaker. He may also be the most conservative.

Johnson is the former chairman of the Republican Study Committee and sponsored legislation to effectively bar the discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity at any institution serving children younger than 10 that receives federal funds.

He served on former President Donald Trump’s impeachment defense team, played a leading role in recruiting House Republicans to sign a legal brief supporting a lawsuit seeking to overturn the 2020 election results and was an architect of Trump’s bid to object to certifying them in Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.

Democrats were scathing in their assessment of Johnson’s ascent to the speakership. Representative Pete Aguilar of California, the Democratic conference chairman, said that the speaker fight had devolved into a contest over “who can appease Donald Trump.” At that line, a handful of hard-right Republicans stood and applauded.

They heckled mainstream Republicans facing tough re-election contests next year in swing districts as they rose to vote for Johnson. After Mike Lawler and Marc Molinaro, both of New York, each voted for the Louisiana Republican, a Democrat could be heard yelling out: “Bye-bye!”

Johnson immediately faces a host of challenges that dogged his predecessor. He is confronting a mid-November deadline to pass a measure to fund the government to avert a shutdown. And he will need to lead a conference deeply divided over foreign policy as Congress considers the Biden administration’s $105 billion funding request for Israel, Ukraine and the southern border.

Johnson has opposed continued funding for the war in Ukraine, which has emerged as a bitter fault line in the Republican right, and in the spending battles that he will have to navigate in the coming days.

After President Biden was told during a White House news conference that a new speaker had been elected, Biden said: “I hope that’s true. Because we have to get moving.”

Asked whether he was concerned, given the Republican speaker’s history, that he would try again to overturn the election in 2024, Biden answered flatly: “No. Just like I was not worried the last campaign would overturn the election.”

Johnson was able to bring together both the party’s hard-right and mainstream flanks that had taken turns sinking speaker candidates. But it was also clear that Republicans were eager to put an end to the weekslong spectacle of mass dysfunction and paralysis that many said had left their constituents distraught.

“From an outside point of view these last few weeks probably look like total chaos, confusion, no end in sight,” said Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the No. 3 Republican who within hours of being nominated for speaker was dumped by his party’s hard-right flank. “But from my perspective, this is one of the greatest experiences in the recent history of our republic.”

Mainstream conservatives who backed Johnson said they were eager to pull the House out of its paralysis.

“While there are issues where we differ, we must get back to governing for the good of the country,” Lawler wrote on social media, posting a photo of himself and Johnson shaking hands.

A bloc of Republicans had objected to the speaker bid of Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, the hard-right co-founder of the Freedom Caucus, because of his role in helping lead Trump’s efforts to overturn the election. But some said they did not have the same concerns about Johnson.

Ken Buck of Colorado said that Johnson was not involved in postelection efforts to invalidate the results, even though Johnson was a critical player in those activities.

“People can make mistakes and still be really good speakers,” Buck said.

The hard-right Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy, setting into motion the three-week stretch of chaos that left the House without a leader, said Johnson’s ascension to the top job made their decision to depose the California Republican worth it.

“This affirms the path that we took,” said Bob Good of Virginia.

After the vote, Democratic Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts released a statement on the election of Johnson as Speaker.

“I congratulate Speaker Mike Johnson on his election,” she said. “Today, he stated that our nation’s founding creed is that all people are created equal and are endowed with certain unalienable rights. I sincerely hope that Speaker Johnson will honor those truths and work across the aisle to safeguard the freedom and human dignity of every person in this country.”

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