Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) is the latest candidate Republicans in the House have nominated to Speaker, the fourth member of Congress to be put up for the nomination. After Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) had the gavel taken away from him by eight Republicans and every Democrat, the GOP has gone through Steve Scalise (R-LA), Jim Jordan (R-OH), and as of yesterday Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), who withdrew from the race within four hours after he failed to get the blessing of former President Donald Trump.
Mike Johnson is the former chairman of the Republican Study Committee, the largest conservative “caucus” or lawmaking coalition within the House of Representatives. He was chosen on Tuesday in a private nomination process, during which all but three GOP representatives who voted “present” said they could support him for Speaker.
Johnson is scheduled to receive a House floor vote today at noon.
GOP speaker nominee @RepMikeJohnson: "Democracy is messy sometimes, but it is our system. This conference that you see, this House Republican majority, is united." pic.twitter.com/YBuG2esWd4
— CSPAN (@cspan) October 25, 2023
Emmer faced backlash from over twenty GOP House members, and was called a “Globalist RINO” by Trump. But Johnson’s chances are looking better, seeing as Trump has given him the nod. “I don’t have one negative comment about him,” Trump said. “It looks like it’s gonna happen.”
Donald Trump reacts to Mike Johnson being nominated as House Speaker pic.twitter.com/cZ9ukvVys4
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) October 25, 2023
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), the member who led the initial charge against McCarthy, had good words to say about Johnson too. “We adore him, and I think he’s gonna do a great job for the country and for the right reasons. Mike Johnson has not bought and paid for. Mike Johnson does what is right,” he said.
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Johnson has served as the vice chair of the House Republicans since 2021. Before he became a Rep. in 2017, Johnson was a member of the Louisiana state legislature, and before that worked variously as an attorney, a talk show host, and a college professor.
When asked why the Party seems to be warm to Johnson, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) attributed to the fatigue members are feeling after three weeks of bickering. “I think I everyone has hopefully exhausted the infighting in their systems, and we can move forward and get back to work on behalf of the American people and focus on the issues,” Lawler said. “Personality conflicts served nobody in there.”
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