Johnson elected US House speaker in close vote

Republican Mike Johnson survived a narrow vote to remain Speaker of the House in a drama-filled, highly-anticipated vote that marked the start of a full Republican reign in Washington.

Johnson was only able to lose two votes because of the tight margin that Republicans have in Congress. When he was on the verge of losing the election, he survived the vote after lobbying.

President-elect Donald Trump previously endorsed Johnson for House speaker, saying “Mike’s victory today will be a great victory for the Republican Party”.

The Speaker of the House is one of the most powerful positions in Washington, in charge of the lower house of the US Congress, and second in line to the president after the vice president.

Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, has the support of nearly all Republicans in his bid for re-election.

But that victory was not without controversy.

The Speaker’s vote requires the representative to receive the support of the majority of the House – 218 votes. But due to the number of Republicans in the House, Johnson was able to meet two Republicans.

Johnson already faced a tough “no” from Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky.

“You can pull out all my fingernails. You can push the bamboo up. You can start cutting my fingers. I’m not voting for Mike Johnson,” Massie said Thursday in a television interview.

Several other Republicans placed themselves in the “undecided” category in the poll.

In the first round of voting, three of the Republicans who did not take action voted for other lawmakers over Johnson, preventing him from reaching the 218 votes he needed.

Three senators – Massie, South Carolina Congressman Ralph Norman and Texas Congressman Keith Self – named other options to be the next speaker.

This prompted Johnson to flee the floor of the House and ask members for help. After 45 minutes, he returned to the House room.

Both Norman and Self changed their votes to support Johnson.

Magavel hit and Johnson won the decision again.

Norman told reporters after the election that he changed his vote after speaking with Johnson in an outside chamber of the House chamber.

He said Johnson told him there would be more audience at the table during negotiations, less interaction between the congressional leadership and the committee without outside comments from other lawmakers and enough time to count the votes before they are scheduled.

“When we left that little room, he convinced me and Keith (Self),” Norman said. “He (Johnson) said I’m going to do it, just give me a chance. He knew and I knew if it went to a second vote it was going to be very tight.”

Another actor took part in the difficult election of the speaker – President-elect Donald Trump.

Norman spoke to Trump twice on the speaker’s ballot.

The first time was when fellow Republican Nancy Mace of South Carolina gave her a phone call to talk to the president-elect. The second was when he met Johnson, Self and several others.

“(Trump) is excited,” Norman said of the invitation from the president-elect. “He said, ‘Norman, we’ve had so many opportunities that we’ve had – House, Senate, the trifecta, you don’t get that opportunity.’ I said, ‘Mr. President, I agree with you, I just hope that Mike has a chance to pull this off.

Norman said the president-elect also said Johnson is the only one who has a chance to win the speakership.

Self told reporters after the vote that he spoke with Trump before and after the speaker’s election.

He said he changed his mind when Johnson promised to have more members, including the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, at the negotiating table.

“We terminated the reconciliation team because we know that this will be a strong incentive to achieve Trump’s goals on the reconciliation line,” he said.

Friday is the first day of the 119th Congress. Republicans have a monopoly in Washington, with majorities in the House and Senate and Trump will return to the White House later in January.

In his acceptance speech, Johnson said that this Congress will promote the idea of ​​America first – words of encouragement from Trump.

After Trump’s election, he said the American people want their interests to be prioritized again.

“And we will,” Johnson said.

Voting in a new speaker is the first priority of a new session of Congress, and without the speaker in place, the chamber cannot proceed with any further work.

This has led to upheavals in the past — including when former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy went 15 votes before being confirmed for the leadership post.

Minutes before the vote on Friday, Johnson wrote on several X’s about his plans, if elected.

He promised to create a “task force with independent experts” to work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that Trump named Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Republican Vivek Ramaswamy to lead.

The task force, he said, will review the audits already done in government agencies and agencies created by Congress and issue a report.

“If we want to restore financial responsibility, we need to start by talking clearly about the money that was spent, addressing the problems we found, and holding accountable those who spent the money,” Johnson said.