The unknown and inexperienced Republican Mike Johnson succeeded on Wednesday where several high-flyers from his group failed in recent weeks. He managed to win over the most radical and most moderate members of his party and become the surprising new Speaker of the House of Representatives. His election, which was unanimous among party members, was such a surprise to himself that his wife could not fly from his home state of Louisiana in time to experience it.
After a month of publicly fought internal battles that damaged political careers and stalled American decision-making, Johnson vowed to unite his group, work with Democrats to keep the federal government open and sustain support for Israel. But the extremely religious lawyer has a shaky power base and inherits a split faction that is preparing for next year’s elections. Democrats fear that no agreements can be made with Donald Trump’s ally, but also see his weakness and primal conservatism as an opportunity to retake the House next year.
Deeply religious
Johnson (51) has been a representative since 2017, but until his sudden candidacy this week was actually only known for supporting Trump in his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. He is driven much more by his Christian beliefs than his love for Trump. Johnson is one of the driving forces behind Republican initiatives to ban abortion nationwide. He wants to restrict sex education in schools. And he has advocated making homosexuality a criminal offence.
“I don’t believe in coincidence,” Johnson said in his victory speech on Wednesday. “I believe that God … has led us to this specific moment.” He then joked that his wife is exhausted from all the praying she has done in recent weeks. He also talked about his childhood, as the son of a 17-year-old mother and a father who was seriously injured while working as a firefighter.
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Mike Johnson’s main qualification with which he won the election on Wednesday is that he is an amiable man with no enemies in the party. He never headed a major House committee, nor is he a fundraising star, another key role of the chairman. With a narrow majority of 221 Republicans to 212 Democrats, he cannot afford to lose support from party members. Because the White House and the Senate are in Democratic hands, he cannot get anything of substance done without working with that party. Democratic colleagues said in American media on Wednesday that they should have Googled him to know who he is.
Exhausting internal struggle
The position of House speaker has been vacant since eight radical Republicans ousted their own leader Kevin McCarthy in early October after he struck a funding deal with Democrats. Afterwards, a dozen of the 221 Republicans ran for office. The moderates Steve Scalise and Tom Emmer refrained from a plenary vote on their candidacy because they felt that the Trumpian camp in their party was not on board. Populist Jim Jordan endured three humiliating rounds of voting in which more traditional Republicans denied him the job.
It was precisely his obscurity that helped Johnson on Wednesday when the faction was exhausted by internal strife and the lack of leadership in the midst of the Gaza war became embarrassing. Former Chairman McCarthy called him “a friend, a fighter and a principled conservative.” Donald Trump had blessed him earlier in the day. “I think he is a great president,” the former president said in the corridors of the New York court where he was fined. “I haven’t heard anything negative about him,” Trump said.
There is relief now that the speaker soap is over and the House can make decisions again. The main item on the agenda is the package of 105 billion dollars (almost one billion euros) in aid for Ukraine, Israel and border control. The question is whether the Republicans, among whom support for Ukraine is increasingly unpopular, will agree to that combination because Israel and immigration are their spearheads. In addition, an agreement must be reached within three weeks to keep the federal government open to prevent a new shutdown.
To achieve this, Democrats will want to work with Johnson. But a campaign committee of that party immediately distributed a memo that exulted that such a conservative House Speaker could help Democrats win back districts where the elections are close. “Republicans may be breathing a short-sighted sigh of relief now that they have elected a new president,” Politico quoted. “But their decision to promote an anti-abortion extremist who has pushed to undermine Social Security and Medicare and is one of the key architects of the illegal effort to overturn the 2020 election will put them in lose the majority by 2024.”