US Home of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson was reelected to the chamber’s prime job on Friday in a prolonged vote that highlighted persistent divisions amongst Donald Trump’s Republicans on Capitol Hill.
Johnson appeared to initially fall wanting the bulk he would wish to retain his job in an hour-long roll-call vote, however two Republican opponents switched their votes to assist him after greater than half an hour of negotiations. He received reelection with 218 votes – the minimal quantity wanted.
Republicans management the chamber by a razor-thin 219-215 majority.
The vote was an early check of the occasion’s capability to hold collectively because it advances Trump’s agenda of tax cuts and border enforcement. It additionally examined Trump’s clout on Capitol Hill, the place a handful of Republicans have already proven a willingness to defy him.
Home Republicans have been racked by inside divisions during the last two years. Johnson was elevated to speaker after the occasion ousted his predecessor Kevin McCarthy in the course of his time period.
Members of Congress milled across the chamber for greater than half an hour after voting had concluded, whereas Johnson and his lieutenants may very well be seen making an attempt to influence the holdouts.
A Reuters photographer captured a picture of Consultant Marjorie Taylor Greene, who voted for Johnson, speaking on her iPhone with the identify Susie Wiles – Trump’s incoming chief of workers – seen on the display.
The Home went via 15 rounds of voting over 4 days in 2023 earlier than electing McCarthy speaker.
The mild-mannered Louisiana consultant, 52, was vaulted from obscurity into one in every of Washington’s strongest jobs throughout three weeks of turmoil in October 2023, when Republicans pressured out McCarthy and struggled to agree on a successor. The conservative Christian lawyer emerged as a consensus decide, however has since struggled to maintain his occasion unified.
He has sought to construct a detailed relationship with Trump, who endorsed him on Monday following weeks of uncertainty.
“A win for Mike in the present day might be an enormous win for the Republican Occasion,” Trump posted on-line on Friday. Trump returns to the White Home on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20.
In a job that’s second in line to the presidency after the vice chairman, Johnson can have an enormous job forward. Along with taking up Trump’s sweeping legislative agenda, Congress might want to handle the nation’s debt ceiling later this yr.
With the federal authorities already greater than $36 trillion in debt, many congressional Republicans are anticipated to demand vital spending cuts.
Republicans had been additionally sworn into their new 53-47 Senate majority on Friday with Senator John Thune as their new chief, succeeding long-serving Senator Mitch McConnell, who’s stepping except for management however remaining in workplace.
Johnson angered some conservatives by repeatedly turning to Democrats to supply the votes to go vital laws, like payments to maintain authorities businesses working. He additionally confronted a last-minute problem late final month when Trump instructed Home Republicans to scrap a authorities funding deal, demanding it additionally increase the nation’s debt ceiling.
A revised model of that invoice – not together with Trump’s debt-ceiling demand – handed the Home just a few hours earlier than the federal government would have shut down, and it acquired extra assist from Democrats than Republicans.
Congress is scheduled to fulfill on Monday to certify Trump’s presidential election victory, a operate will probably be unable to carry out with no speaker.
Johnson has additionally regarded to make his path for the following two years simpler, by altering a rule agreed to by McCarthy that allowed anyone member of the Home to name for the speaker’s ouster via what is called a “movement to vacate.” Johnson’s proposed guidelines would require 9 members of the bulk to agree earlier than forcing the kind of vote that led to McCarthy’s ouster.
