On October 3rd, the House removed the Speaker for the first time in history. Speaker McCarthy worked with Democrats to raise the debt ceiling and avoid a government shutdown, prompting Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz to file a motion to vacate, seeking to oust McCarthy. Some republicans have suggested that when McCarthy raised the debt ceiling he included a secret side deal that provided more military aid to Ukraine.
After three weeks and three failed bids for the speakership, Rep. Mike Johnson was elected as House Speaker with the vote of all 220 Republican Representatives. Mike Johnson is a religious, Trump-supporting, conservative who has served as a House Representative from Louisiana since 2017. Johnson is a member of the House Judiciary Committee, which is chaired by failed Speaker candidate Rep. Jim Jordan, and a member of the Armed Force Committee, where he has called for the end of military and financial aid to Ukraine.
Johnson has some history with the position of speaker: in 2022, Rep. Andy Briggs nominated Johnson over Kevin McCarthy, and Rep. Matt Gaetz openly supported Johnson while ousting McCarthy. Even with the divided state of the Republican party, Johnson has received widespread support.
“We are just getting started, but people are going to come to know and love what he represents because he fights for things bigger than himself and people who have been ignored for way too long,” Rep. Steve Scalise, failed House Speaker candidate, said.
Johnson has, in part, received widespread Republican support because of his far-right history. Other candidates have been scrutinized due to their votes to codify LGBTQ rights, certify the election results of 2020, and continue military aid to Ukraine, but Johnson has consistently expressed the opposite views. After the 2020 election, Johnson filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court, seeking to have the election overturned. Since then, Johnson has supported the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and called for the restriction of gender affirming care and same sex marriage. This far-right support was also felt by Jim Jordan; however, he was not able to get moderate Republican votes, due to his ultra-conservative presentation.
“I think the Republicans settled on Johnson because he’s more of a statesman. Even though he supports a lot of the things that Jim Jordan supports that are controversial, it’s the presentation,” Mr. Wallace said, adding that Johnson is, compared to Jordan, “more level headed.”
These same views explain his complete lack of Democratic support. Throughout the three weeks without a speaker, Democrats have consistently backed House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, while scrutinizing all of the Republican candidates.
“Mike Johnson wants to criminalize abortion care and impose a nationwide ban. Mike Johnson was one of the chief architects of trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Mike Johnson also wants to end Social Security and Medicare as we know it. Those are extreme views,” Jeffries said.
Even though Speaker McCarthy averted a government shutdown, the new deadline of November 17th is quickly approaching, and it is unclear whether the slim Republican majority in the House will be able to come together to avoid a shutdown. Government operations could come to a grinding halt. Members of the military would be forced to work without pay, and other federal workers would be temporarily out of a job. The nation would face airport delays, infrastructure failure, and a lack of access to federal services, including IRS tax assistance, food assistance programs, and federal grants.