House elects speaker: Republicans align behind Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson

Oct. 25—WASHINGTON — The U.S. House of Representatives has a speaker, after more than three weeks of Republican infighting left the position vacant and the legislature paralyzed.

On Wednesday afternoon, just before 2 p.m., House Republicans finally rallied behind a single candidate and the party's membership voted unanimously to elect Rep. James "Mike" Johnson, R-La., to run the chamber.

Johnson, a 54-year-old attorney, has made few headlines since coming to Congress in 2016. He will be one of the least experienced speakers in history, with less than seven years in Congress compared to 16 to 20 years for each of the last four speakers.

He represents parts of northern and western Louisiana, a solidly conservative constituency. Johnson chairs the conservative Republican Study Committee, one of the "five families" of Republican voting blocs that has made this speaker election so chaotic.

Johnson is also vice-chair of the House Republican Conference, second to Conference Chair Rep. Elise M. Stefanik, R-Willsboro. Stefanik played a key role in the speaker's election this year, running the search process and taking flack from conservatives on social media for her close proximity to the failed speaker candidates. Stefanik again led the floor nomination for Johnson on Wednesday, as she had for Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the only prior nominee to make it to the House floor.

Like Stefanik, Johnson rejected the results of the 2020 election, but played an even larger role than the congresswoman. Johnson, using his background as a constitutional lawyer, promoted an argument that suggested the states that changed their voting procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic had done so unconstitutionally. It's the same argument Stefanik used to object to the Pennsylvania election results on Jan. 6, 2021, an argument she was delivering on the House floor just as rioters breached the Capitol building and business was halted that day.

Johnson is rated among the most conservative members of the House by conservative thinktanks like Heritage Action. He's been less aligned with this year's slate of House conservatives on spending bills, voting to support the debt deal between former Speaker Kevin O. McCarthy, R-Calif., and President Joseph R. Biden, but against the most recent bill to avoid a government shutdown at the start of October.

Johnson has consistently voted against legal abortion. He's voted against codifying same-sex marriage into law, and has co-sponsored a bill that would criminalize gender-affirming medical treatment for people younger than 18.

Johnson managed to do what no other speaker candidate has been able to do — unify the disparate parts of the party. In public statements shared Wednesday, many members of Congress lauded Johnson for his conservative bonafides and ability to whip votes in his favor. Johnson had come out of the secret conference vote to nominate him for speaker with a slim majority of Republicans supporting him, but managed to secure every single Republican member's vote in less than a day.

In her floor speech nominating Johnson, Stefanik lauded Johnson and said he will "save America," and said Republicans were "strikingly unified" behind him.

"This Republican conference knows that we live in perilous times, and the American people are hurting," Stefanik said.

"The people are looking to this great chamber to save America, and save America we will," she concluded.

Rep. Michael V. Lawler, R-Pearl River, who joined with a handful of New York Republicans to deny Jordan the speaker's chair, lauded Johnson in a press release shared shortly after the vote concluded.

He said that the three-week gap between speakers was unacceptable, and the House needed to get back to work.

"Speaker Mike Johnson is hardworking and smart, and I am confident that despite any differences we may have on policy, he is fully capable of unifying our conference and leading the House forward," Lawler said.

He called for Congress to move quickly on aid for Israel, a border security package for the southern border and to finish its work preparing a federal budget for the current fiscal year, which was due in October.

But Lawler and the other New York Republicans representing districts that voted for Biden in 2020 will likely be faced with difficult choices in the months ahead as they prepare for reelection. Republicans representing moderate districts will likely be asked to vote on some complicated bills. Conservatives have asked for their party to bring controversial bills to the House floor on issues from government funding cuts to abortion bans, and appeared to support Johnson for speaker because he will bring those bills up for a vote.

Lawler hinted he expected such issues to come up in his statement Wednesday.

"I will continue to be the bipartisan, independent voice that Hudson Valley residents sent me to Washington to be, holding the Biden administration accountable and standing up to my own party when warranted," he said.

A spokesperson for Rep. Marcus J. Molinaro, R-Tivoli, did not respond to a request for comment by press time Wednesday. Despite initially supporting Jordan in previous votes, Molinaro had switched his vote for speaker to former Rep. Lee Zeldin. He supported Johnson immediately in Wednesday's vote.