Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson nearly lost his bid to retain speakership of the House of Representatives after the first round of voting on Friday.
Initially, 215 Republicans voted for Johnson, while three called for the appointment of a new speaker. But shortly before a second round of voting was set to kick off, two of those Republicans flipped their votes and backed Johnson, allowing the Louisiana lawmaker to eke out a last-minute victory by a single vote.
The Context
Republicans maintained control of the House in the November 2024 election, but by a razor-thin margin, meaning Johnson could keep the gavel only if nearly every GOP lawmaker voted for him.
Mike Johnson, R-La., talks to reporters after passing the funding bill to avert the government shutdown at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
What To Know
Here are the Republicans who initially voted against Johnson:
- Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky voted for Representative Tom Emmer of Minnesota.
- Representative Ralph Norman of South Carolina voted for Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio.
- Representative Keith Self of Texas voted for Representative Byron Donalds of Florida.
But Norman and Self later changed their votes and decided to back Johnson, delivering him the speakership.
Johnson was girding for the possibility of defeat heading into Friday’s highly anticipated vote.
With the resignation of Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, there are 219 Republicans in the House GOP conference. Johnson needed to garner 218 votes to hang onto the speakership, meaning he could only afford to lose a single vote.
The math gets more complicated if a member is absent or votes “present,” since the Speaker needs to be elected by only a majority of those voting for a candidate.
Johnson acknowledged that, telling Fox News on Thursday that he could “only afford to lose one or two” GOP votes to hold onto the gavel.
ABC News reported that Johnson met on Thursday with a number of possible Republican holdouts to gain their support.
According to ABC, several lawmakers in the conservative House Freedom Caucus were seen entering Johnson’s office the day before the vote, including Republican Representatives Andy Ogles, Ralph Norman, Victoria Spartz, Chip Roy, Michael Cloud, Scott Perry, Andy Biggs, Andy Harris, Eli Crane and Andrew Clyde.
President-elect Donald Trump, who offered Johnson a full-throated endorsement before Friday’s vote, reportedly spent much of the day with his advisers focusing, in particular, on getting Roy to support Johnson.
Roy, Cloud, Biggs, Harris and Clyde all initially abstained from voting on Friday before throwing their support behind Johnson at the end of the roll call.
Johnson’s future as House speaker was particularly uncertain in the last few weeks of 2024, while the chamber was working to pass a temporary federal funding bill to avert a government shutdown days before Christmas.
Just as the House appeared poised to pass a bipartisan measure, Trump and billionaire Elon Musk torpedoed the proposal by urging lawmakers to vote against it.
Then several Republican lawmakers criticized his leadership and Democrats said they wouldn’t throw the House speaker a lifeline after Trump and Musk scuttled the initial bipartisan deal.
What People Are Saying
Norman told ABC before the vote that several Republicans were “debating” if they would vote for Johnson: “We are trying to come to a conclusion. We are going to meet with him now. And we’ll see.”
Trump told reporters earlier this week that he believed Johnson would remain House speaker: “No one else can get the votes.”
Gaetz, on X: “Trump endorsing Johnson is ‘art of the deal’ level practicality. We could never have held up McCarthy two years ago for concessions if a Trump certification hung in the balance. Now, it does. We were able to hold up McCarthy because Republican voters weren’t all that eager to see us getting back to being Biden’s bitch (which Kevin ultimately did anyway). The resistance to @SpeakerJohnson is now futile. Let’s work to make him the best version of himself (which was more like the 2023 vintage of Mike).”
What Comes Next
Johnson now faces the daunting task of successfully carrying out Trump’s agenda while keeping the Republican caucus together.
He’s already on thin ice with certain members of his own party, including Massie, who earlier this week wrote, “even if Mike’s entire goal is to do everything Trump wants without debate or question … he’s not going to be good at it.”
