Folksy Champion of Christian Right Mike Johnson Is New GOP Speaker

(Bloomberg) -- House Speaker Mike Johnson introduced himself to the American public Wednesday by repeatedly invoking his evangelical Christian faith, signaling a political shift that will permeate debate on everything from abortion to the economy.

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The 51-year-old congressman, best known outside his Louisiana district for his support of Donald Trump’s efforts to deny President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory, referred to the motto “In God We Trust” chiseled into the marble above the speaker’s rostrum and the carving of Moses on the other side of the House chamber.

“The Bible is very clear that God is the one that raises up those in authority,” Johnson told House lawmakers. “He raised up each of you, all of us.”

Many politicians, including Biden, have an abiding religious faith. But Johnson’s decades of work on behalf of evangelical cultural issues make him the most conservative speaker in modern times.

He holds ultraconservative positions on abortion, for which he advocates a national ban with limited exceptions, and same-sex marriages, which he has vigorously opposed. He’s introduced legislation that would ban the use of federal funds for, among other things, drag-queen story hours, and he’s advocated for students’ rights to pray in public schools.

Yet in a party bitterly divided by personal grudges and factional strife over tactics and ideological purity, Johnson stands out for his folksy, affable manner.

“Nobody hates him. That’s his best asset,” said Representative Tom Massie, a Kentucky Republican.

Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar questioned whether the speaker race was about finding “the person who can pass their extreme litmus test to oppose marriage equality, enact a nationwide abortion ban — without exceptions — gut Social Security and Medicare, and support overturning a free and fair election.”

“It’s a fair question,” he added.

Hardliners who overthrew former Speaker Kevin McCarthy embraced Johnson’s election as a victory for Trump’s Make America Great Again populism, often abbreviated as MAGA.

“If you don’t think that moving from Kevin McCarthy to MAGA Mike Johnson shows the ascendance of this movement and where the power in the Republican Party truly lies, then you’re not paying attention,” Republican Matt Gaetz of Florida, the ringleader in McCarthy’s ouster, said on former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s podcast.

Johnson’s outside income last year included $29,890 for teaching online classes at Liberty University, the Christian college and bastion of cultural conservatism founded by televangelist Jerry Falwell, according to his congressional financial disclosure.

Earlier: Trump Ally Johnson Elected Speaker, Shifting GOP Further Right

Before entering electoral politics, Johnson worked for a Christian right legal advocacy group and successfully defended Louisiana’s ban on same-sex marriage before the state supreme court. He represented a Christian college that sued the Obama administration to try to block the contraceptive coverage mandate in the Affordable Care Act.

As a state legislator, he sponsored a proposal that would have blocked local governments from imposing penalties on businesses that refuse to serve gay couples based on moral objections to same-sex marriage.

As a law student, he helped draft Louisiana’s 1997 “covenant marriage” law that makes divorce more difficult for couples who sign a “covenant” before being wed, working with Tony Perkins, then a state legislator and now president of the socially conservative Family Research Council. Johnson entered into a covenant marriage with his wife.

In Congress, he voted for a national abortion ban and backed a prohibition on military health coverage of sex reassignment surgeries and hormone treatments for transgender individuals.

He has been a reliable Washington ally to conservative causes since being elected to the House in 2016, the same election that put Trump in the White House.

He objected to certification of the 2020 election results and played a key role in getting signatures for an amicus brief in the long-shot Texas lawsuit that sought to overturn election results in several states.

Spending Cuts

Johnson has advocated deep cuts in federal spending. He produced a budget proposal in 2019 as chairman of the Republican Study Committee that would have cut Medicare and Social Security benefits by raising the eligibility age for both to 69, allowing further increases to match life expectancy increases and cut annual cost-of-living increases.

He has a long history of opposing bipartisan government spending measures, including a vote against the temporary funding that prevented an Oct. 1 shutdown. Though this week he told Republican lawmakers he would back short-term funding into 2024 to avoid a mid-November shutdown, he has left open the possibility of attaching conservative policy demands as a condition.

Johnson has said he’s open to considering Ukraine aid, but has voted against it. Johnson could attempt to tie Ukraine assistance to border security policies, which he flagged in his inaugural speech as a top priority.

The new speaker remains vulnerable to overthrow any time he runs afoul of even a small group of Republican dissidents, with Republicans retaining a rule allowing any member to force a vote that could oust him.

A defection by five Republicans is enough to unseat a speaker because of the party’s slim majority, which could shrink further as New York Republicans seek to expel Republican George Santos.

Johnson has shown a willingness to compromise on tax policy. According to New York Representative Andrew Garbarino, Johnson said he would support changes to the state and local tax deduction as part of any GOP tax package this year. An increase in the cap on the SALT deduction is top priority for New York Republicans but reversing a key pillar of the Trump tax bill is anathema to GOP fiscal hawks given its cost.

Johnson opposed legislation that would provide legal protection for banks who do business with the marijuana industry in states where the drug is legal.

The oil and gas industry, a major economic force in Louisiana, has donated more than $338,125 to Johnson over his congressional career. And defense-sector companies are among the top donors to the member of the House Armed Services Committe, contributing almost $124,000.

Johnson lives in Bossier Parish in northwestern Louisiana with his wife, Kelly. They have four children, Hannah, Abigail, Jack and Will. He spoke Wednesday of his firefighter father, who was critically burned and disabled in the line of duty.

--With assistance from Steven T. Dennis and Roxana Tiron.

(Updates with Gaetz comment, threshold for ousting speaker beginning with tenth paragraph)

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