House Republicans selected Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) to be their fourth speaker-designate in the weeks since Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was removed from the speakership.
The Louisiana Republican now needs to get 217 votes from the GOP conference on the House floor to be elected speaker, something previous GOP speaker nominees failed to do. Here is what you need to know about Johnson before the speaker vote.
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Who is he?
Johnson is a four-term congressman and has represented Louisiana’s 4th Congressional District since 2017. He has served as the vice chairman of the House Republican Conference since 2021 after serving as the head of the Republicans Study Committee from 2019 until 2021.
He currently serves on the House Judiciary Committee and the House Armed Services Committee. If he wins the speakership, Johnson will be the least experienced presiding officer elected since Kentucky Rep. John Carlisle in 1883.
Why did he get the nomination?
The Louisiana Republican was selected after four separate speaker elections, which resulted in three failed candidates, including House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN).
Johnson’s low profile in the House played to his advantage in being selected as speaker-designate, preventing the fierce opposition other candidates received from centrist and right-wing flanks of the House GOP.
Speaking at a late-night press conference surrounded by his Republican colleagues, Johnson said the “House Republican majority is united.”
His position on key topics
Johnson is viewed as a more conservative member of the House Republican Conference, earning a lifetime score of 90% from the conservative group Heritage Action. Most recently, Johnson was one of 90 House Republicans who voted against the stopgap bill to fund the government through mid-November. The stopgap bill was cited as a reason for Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-FL) successful motion to vacate McCarthy from the speakership.
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The Louisiana Republican has come under fire for his stances in the aftermath of the 2020 election, which saw Joe Biden defeat then-President Donald Trump. Johnson was the leader in organizing an amicus brief to the Supreme Court, challenging the electoral processes of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The high court declined to take the case.
Johnson was also one of the 139 House Republicans who voted to decertify the 2020 election during a special session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021. He was asked if he stood by his efforts to overturn the 2020 election during a press conference on Tuesday, but Republicans around Johnson shouted down the question.
