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The eldest son of a Shreveport firefighter who was critically burned and permanently disabled in the line of duty, Mike learned early on the values of hard work, honor, and sacrifice. He has a practical understanding of the challenges that small business owners face because he, like his parents and grandparents, is one himself. He and his wife Kelly, a former school teacher and now a Licensed Pastoral Counselor, have been married since 1999, and have four children, Hannah, Abigail, Jack and Will, and an older son Michael, who became a part of their family in 1999. Today, they reside in Bossier Parish.You can find Congressman's official photo here. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene says she’ll call a vote next week on ousting House Speaker Mike Johnson. The Georgia Republican is forcing her colleagues to choose sides after Democratic leaders said they’d provide the votes to save the GOP speaker’s job.
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And to find a Republican speaker who left voluntarily in a moment of victory, moving on to another office, you have to go back to the mid-1920s. But this time around several Democrats have indicated they would cross the aisle to support Johnson and frustrate Greene & Co. if it came to a vote. Democratic leaders have indicated they are open to this, and it essentially repeats the strategy that allowed Johnson to pass the Ukraine portion of the aid bill earlier this month.
Jeffries
As speaker, Johnson will need to negotiate with seasoned Democratic leadership, including Biden and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York, on a swath of pressing issues, including potential funding for Ukraine and Israel to aid them in their respective wars. Overnight the endorsements for Johnson started pouring in, including from the failed speaker hopefuls. Rep. Jim Jordan, the hard-charging Judiciary Committee chairman backed by Trump, gave his support, as did Majority Leader Steve Scalise, the fellow Louisiana congressman rejected by Jordan’s wing, who stood behind Johnson after he won the nomination. WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans unanimously elected Rep. Mike Johnson as House speaker on Wednesday, eagerly elevating a deeply conservative but lesser-known leader to the major seat of U.S. power and ending for now the weeks of political chaos in their majority. The new speaker played a pivotal role in congressional efforts to overturn the 2020 election and opposes abortion rights and gay marriage. Johnson, who has represented his northwestern Louisiana district since 2017, makes history as the first speaker elected from that state.
House to take up resolution declaring support for Israel
When asked about the 2020 election at a news conference after he was nominated for speaker Tuesday night, Johnson declined to answer. The federal government risks a shutdown in a matter of weeks if Congress fails to pass funding legislation by a Nov. 17 deadline to keep services and offices running. More immediately, President Joe Biden has asked Congress to provide $105 billion in aid — to help Israel and Ukraine amid their wars and to shore up the U.S. border with Mexico.
Wednesday morning, hours before an expected vote, Trump, the de facto leader of the Republican Party, said he wasn't technically endorsing Johnson but suggesting the House elect him. A spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ rights group, labeled Johnson “Jim Jordan with a jacket and a smile,” referring to the right-wing firebrand from Ohio who chairs the House Judiciary Committee. He voted against bipartisan legislation to codify same-sex marriage, which Biden signed into law last year. Last month, Johnson was among 93 Republicans who voted for an amendment by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., to cut off U.S. military assistance for Ukraine. In Biden’s first two years, Johnson voted against a slew of bipartisan bills — including one to establish a Jan. 6 independent commission, the infrastructure law, reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, a modest new gun law and the CHIPS and Science Act.
"Therefore, the Honorable Mike Johnson of the state of Louisiana, having received a majority of the votes cast, is duly elected speaker of the House of Representatives for the 118th Congress," McHenry, the interim speaker, announced after reading the final vote tally. "We're going to dispense with all the usual ceremonies and celebrations that traditionally follow a new speakership because we have no time for either one," Johnson said. "The American people's business is too urgent in this moment. The hour is late. The crisis is great."
Election Denier Rep. Mike Johnson Wins House Speakership After Weeks of Dysfunction - Democracy Docket
Election Denier Rep. Mike Johnson Wins House Speakership After Weeks of Dysfunction.
Posted: Wed, 25 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
After McCarthy was removed, the Republican conference held a closed-door, secret ballot vote for a new speaker nominee between Majority Leader Steve Scalise and right-wing Rep. Jim Jordan, which Scalise won. Ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, joint session of Congress to count the Electoral College votes, Johnson urged lawmakers to follow a "third option," saying the way the states had changed voting rules during the pandemic had been unconstitutional, according to The New York Times. Johnson, who represents a district in western Louisiana, was first elected to the House in 2016. He is a close ally of former President Donald Trump whose arguments formed the basis of many lawmakers' objections to the Electoral College results after the 2020 election. Most concerning to many Democrats is Johnson’s support for Trump two years ago as the former president was trying to illegally overturn his presidential defeat, after every state had certified Trump’s loss and several courts had rejected the former president’s challenges. Former Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, the top Republican on the Judiciary panel during Trump’s first impeachment, said Wednesday that during hectic times on the committee, Johnson would calmly try to organize a way forward.
Missed Votes
The well-respected No. 2 Republican, Eric Cantor of Virginia, had lost his primary in 2014. The No. 3, McCarthy, soon ran aground over remarks in a TV interview and lacked the votes to be speaker. The party settled on Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, who had not sought the gavel but agreed to take it. The next two Republican speakers would be John Boehner, elevated to the job by the GOP recapture of the House in the "Tea Party" election of 2010.
Before Johnson, three other men who raised their hands for the role — House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana; Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, chair of the Judiciary Committee; and Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota — tried and failed to secure enough votes. Before the floor vote to elect him, Johnson sketched out a one-year road map for the GOP conference, saying he would pass key appropriations bills by the end of this week. Johnson didn’t take any questions at a news conference Wednesday, and hasn’t addressed his decades-old opinion pieces since his elevation to the speaker’s chair. In the mid-2000s, Johnson, who was then working for a socially conservative legal advocacy group, wrote opinion pieces for his local paper defending laws that criminalized same-sex sexual relations and expressing fervent opposition to same-sex marriage, CNN reported Wednesday.
But McHenry, the first person to be in the position that was created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks as an emergency measure, declined to back those overtures. In all, some 15 congressmen, but no women, competed for the gavel over the past several weeks. Republicans have been flailing all month, unable to conduct routine business as they fight amongst themselves with daunting challenges ahead. Elevating Johnson to speaker gives Louisianians two high-ranking GOP leaders, putting him above Scalise.
Exhausted from the feuding, which unleashed a barrage of recriminations and violent threats against lawmakers, both the right wing and mainstream Republicans finally united to elect Mr. Johnson, 51, in a 220-to-209 vote. She has written for outlets including the Washington Examiner, Daily Signal and Alexandria Times. Melissa covers U.S. politics, with a focus on the Supreme Court and federal courts. Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota declined Tuesday to say whether former President Donald Trump was a factor in his decision to end his bid for the speakership. Johnson won 128 votes, and Donalds received 29 votes, and there was a vote of "present." McCarthy, who was not a nominee, received 43 votes. Although Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was not in the running, he received more votes than Donalds in the final round.
Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, a founder of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus and someone Mr. Johnson has described as a mentor, was the next member to be elected speaker designate in a secret ballot. He had Mr. Trump and the far right in his corner, but ultimately failed to win over more centrist members of his party who steadfastly refused to support him. Before handing Johnson the gavel, as is customary, Jeffries, the Democratic leader, called the new speaker and father of four "a family man, a hard-working man, a Baptist man, a Southern man, a son of a firefighter's household." Johnson was able to unite the fractured conference through a combination of good timing, his conservatism and his reputation for having a pleasant demeanor.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), one of just two other supporters of Greene’s vacate motion, said he spoke with Greene about the resolution over the break. But he’s also keeping his cards close to the vest, declining to disclose any details about when — or even if — the motion will come to the floor. Yet more than a month later, Greene has declined to force a vote on the resolution, even after Johnson helped to usher both of those bills into law over the howls of conservatives in his GOP conference. Johnson’s public opponents are few, at this point, and less than the eight that it took to oust now-former Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., last fall in the first ever removal of sitting speaker from the powerful office that is second in the line of succession to the president. Just one other Republican, Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, has joined Greene and Massie in their effort.
On Tuesday night, he shut down a question from a reporter about his push to overturn the 2020 election results while his fellow Republicans booed. According to The New York Times, about three-quarters of the arguments that lawmakers used to justify overturning the election results relied on arguments from Johnson. The brief claimed that the officials and courts in each of the battleground states unconstitutionally usurped the power granted to state legislators by changing election rules in 2020. McCarthy also said he supported Johnson, as did moderates and far-right members across the spectrum. Johnson’s ability to unite his own side of the aisle was obvious — at least for now.
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