Speaker of the House Mike Johnson held onto his job on Friday, securing sufficient votes from his Republican colleagues to be reelected in a single spherical. It’s an abbreviated journey for Johnson, in comparison with the fifteen rounds that his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, endured to grow to be speaker.
“What we’re proposing now is just simply, as President Trump likes to say, a ‘return to common sense,’ and he’s exactly right,” Johnson mentioned in his acceptance speech in entrance of the 119th Congress. In his handle, he promised to go after “illegal aliens,” bolster the army, and provides extra energy to folks to outline their youngsters’s training, amongst different objectives. “I am very thankful, personally, that this body is filled with men and women who are committed to that change, to return to common sense. We can do this together, we should.”
Johnson’s win comes after a coordinated push from President-elect Donald Trump and his allies to safe a vote within the incumbent’s favor. In late December, Trump endorsed Johnson for the function, referring to him as a “good, hard working, religious man” in a Truth Social put up that included references to Beyoncé, Reverend Al Sharpton, and unsubstantiated claims of large-scale voter fraud within the 2024 election. Trump celebrated Johnson’s Friday win on Truth Social, too, writing that “Mike will be a Great Speaker, and our Country will be the beneficiary.”
Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky was the one Republican who voted towards Johnson within the remaining tally. Though, initially, 9 Republicans abstained or voted towards Johnson. One by one, they modified their votes. Along with Massie, two different Republican members nonetheless weren’t certain—Representatives Ralph Norman of South Carolina and Keith Self of Texas.
For nearly an hour, as RealClearPolitics reported, “those two Republicans seemed like they were about to hamstring the leader of their own conference. When a second ballot seemed imminent, South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace dialed the president-elect on her cellphone.”
According to a supply with direct information of the decision, Trump advised the pair they had been being “ridiculous.” “I won all these swing states, but while Democrats are over there sticking together, you two guys are screwing it all up. The American people want relief and the Trump agenda,” the president-elect reportedly advised the representatives. “You two are screwing it all up.”
In an interview with Fox News on Friday, Norman defined that he had doubted Johnson as a result of he wasn’t satisfied he had “the oomph or the willingness to fight for Trump’s agenda.”
“I said, ‘Mike, are you going to give us specific examples of fighting for the things we mentioned? Will you give us your word?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ So I said, ‘OK, we’ll take you at your word.’ That’s why I changed my vote,” Norman mentioned, including “He’s going to have Trump backing him up, which is all a good thing.”