Louisiana Congressman Mike Johnson won the election on Wednesday (25) to become the 56th Speaker of the House of Representatives, ending three weeks of chaos that exposed divisions within the Republican Party.
The Republicans chose Johnson, 51, a little-known and deeply conservative legislator after a series of tumultuous votes that began after the far-right ousted then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
The victory by 220 votes in favor and 209 against places a socially conservative lawyer who opposes abortion rights and same-sex marriage, and who played a leadership role in Congress’s efforts to overturn the 2020 elections, second in the line of succession to the presidency.
First elected to Congress in 2016, Johnson is the youngest lawmaker in decades to become Speaker of the House. He is also expected to be the most conservative. An evangelical Christian, Johnson is a former chairman of the Republican Study Committee and sponsored legislation to effectively ban discussions about sexual orientation or gender identity in any institution serving children under 10 years old that receives federal funds.
He served on the defense team for the impeachment of former President Donald J. Trump and played a leadership role in recruiting House Republicans to sign a legal document supporting a process that sought to overturn the results of the 2020 elections.
The less conservative members who supported Johnson said they were eager to get the House out of paralysis. “While there are issues where we disagree, we must get back to governing for the good of the country,” wrote Congressman Mike Lawler of New York on social media.
The first challenge the new leader will face is the mid-November deadline to definitively approve the new government budget. In addition, he will have to lead a deeply divided conference on foreign policy at a time when Congress is considering the Biden administration’s $105 billion funding request for Israel, Ukraine, and the southern border. Johnson opposed continued funding for the war in Ukraine, which has emerged as a bitter fault line within the Republican Party and the spending battles he will have to fight in the coming days.
Source: The New York Times