WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Mike Johnson was re-elected Friday to the chamber’s top job by a narrow margin that highlighted potential fissures among President-elect Donald Trump’s Republicans on Capitol Hill.
Johnson initially appeared to fall short of the majority he needed to keep his job in a roll-call vote that lasted nearly two hours, but two Republican opponents switched their votes to support him after lengthy negotiations. He won re-election with 218 votes, the minimum number needed.
Republicans control the chamber by a narrow 219-215 majority.
The vote was an early test of the party’s ability to hold together as Trump’s agenda of tax cuts and border enforcement advances. It also tested Trump’s influence on Capitol Hill, where a handful of Republicans have shown a willingness to challenge him.
House Republicans have been wracked by internal divisions over the past two years. Johnson was elevated to president after the party ousted his predecessor Kevin McCarthy midway through his term.
Members of Congress milled around the chamber for more than half an hour after the vote concluded, while Mike Johnson and his lieutenants could be seen trying to persuade holdouts.
It was not immediately clear what led Reps. Ralph Norman and Keith Self to change their minds and vote for Johnson after first voting against him. Six other Republicans initially refused to vote before voting for Johnson.
Rep. Thomas Massie, a vocal opponent of Johnson who has long been a thorn in his party’s leadership, was the only Republican to vote against him.
A photographer captured an image of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who voted for Johnson, speaking on her iPhone with the name Susie Wiles, Trump’s next chief of staff, visible on the screen.
The House went through 15 rounds of voting over four days in 2023 before electing McCarthy speaker.
Thrown out of turmoil
The mild-mannered 52-year-old representative from Louisiana rose from obscurity to one of Washington’s most powerful posts during three weeks of turmoil in October 2023, as Republicans ousted McCarthy and struggled to agree on a successor. The conservative Christian lawyer emerged as a consensus choice, but has since struggled to keep his party unified.
He has tried to build a close relationship with Trump, who endorsed him Monday after weeks of uncertainty.
“A victory for Mike today will be a huge victory for the Republican Party,” Trump posted online Friday.
In a position that is second in line to the presidency after the vice president, Johnson will have his work cut out for him. In addition to taking up Trump’s sweeping legislative agenda, Congress will need to address the country’s debt ceiling later this year.
Mike Johnson’s 219-215 Republican majority is likely to shrink further, at least temporarily, if the Senate confirms two Republican lawmakers for positions in the Trump administration.
Trump nominated Elise Stefanik as ambassador to the United Nations and Mike Waltz as his national security adviser. Another seat is vacant, as Republican Matt Gaetz resigned from Congress when he was nominated to serve as Trump’s attorney general. Gaetz also retired from that position amid allegations of sexual misconduct.
All three seats, which represent solidly Republican districts, will be filled in special elections later this year.
With the federal government already more than $36 trillion in debt, many Republicans in Congress are expected to demand deep spending cuts.
Republicans also took over their new 53-47 majority in the Senate on Friday with Senator John Thune as their new leader, succeeding veteran Senator Mitch McConnell, who is stepping away from leadership but remains in office.
Published in Amanecer, January 4, 2025.
