On October 25, Congressman Mike Johnson of Louisiana was elected Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. Eight different Republicans ran for this position. The House of Representatives was leaderless for 22 days after Kevin McCarthy was ousted on October 3. By a vote of 216 to 210, McCarthy was removed from his position as House speaker after he worked with Democrats to avert a government shutdown.
The Speaker of the House is second in line for the presidency, just after the Vice President. The Speaker is selected by the full House membership and the House’s majority party ensures that the role is occupied by a member of its party. In addition to the speaker being the most distinguishable and authoritative spokesperson, they also manage business on the floor, navigate legislative rules, and oversee everything from accounting to procurement of goods and services for the House. The Speaker of the House is elected by the House every two years, known as a “session.” Kevin McCarthy made history as the only Speaker of the House to ever be ousted, forced by a group of hard-right Republicans, signaling a divide in the House Majority Republican party.
Kevin McCarthy was named Speaker of the House on January 7, 2023, after a historic 15 rounds of votes and negotiations. One of the concessions McCarthy made during these negotiations was making it easier to remove him, allowing any sitting member to call a snap vote for a successor. Matt Gaetz and several other far-right Republicans were not supportive of Kevin McCarthy from the beginning which led to Gaetz, on October 3, 2023, announcing he would move to oust McCarthy. Some Republicans were concerned that “McCarthy’s ambition had outweighed his morals”. This began the search for the next Speaker of the House, the first time in US history a Speaker of the House has been ousted.
Several Republicans were nominated, notably Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan, who failed to receive enough votes after three separate rounds of voting. On October 22, nine representatives met the deadline to announce their candidacies for the Speakership. Only two of the nine voted to certify the presidential election results in 2020. Republicans met behind closed doors for the next three days before the House convened on October 25 to hold its formal election for speaker. Mike Johnson won the speakership by a vote of 220 to 209, earning the backing of all GOP lawmakers present.
Mike Johnson is currently serving his fourth term as representative for the 4th Congressional District of Louisiana. He is most known for creating the Electoral College objections that aimed to keep Donald Trump in power after the 2020 election. He has voted against several bipartisan bills — including one to establish a Jan. 6 independent commission, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, a modest new gun law, and the CHIPS and Science Act. He also voted in favor of the debt limit law negotiated by McCarthy and Biden but voted against the stopgap bill to avert a government shutdown on October 1.
Since his time as an attorney and State Representative in Louisiana, Johnson has continually opposed climate change policies and abortion rights. Johnson has denied climate change, “opposed clean energy, and received more campaign contributions from oil and gas companies than from any other industry last year”. Johnson has consistently voted against dozens of climate bills, including bills that would defund the Environmental Protection Agency, and does not think that climate change is related to human activity. Regarding abortion, Johnson has likened abortions to “an American holocaust” and has appeared on several television news programs to speak out against abortion, saying “There is no right to abortion in the Constitution” on Fox News in 2022. Mike Johnson is among one of the most conservative Republicans in the House.