After the 119th Congress convened Friday morning, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) was again elected Speaker of the House – on the first ballot. GOP conference chair Rep. Lisa McClain of Michigan gave a speech nominating Johnson, while Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA), House Democratic Caucus Chair, nominated Hakeem Jeffries.
The vote was not without drama. Initially, Johnson received 216 votes to 215 votes for Jeffries; three representatives (Massie, Norman, and Self) voted for others. After about 30 minutes, Johnson, Norman, and Self exited the chamber, presumably to talk about how to move their votes to Johnson’s column.
Mike Johnson now leading a long procession of HFC types out of the chamber like a pied piper with Ralph Norman and Keith Self immediately behind him.
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) January 3, 2025
About 20 minutes after that, Norman and Self changed their votes to Johnson, bringing his total to the magic 218 number.
After the chaos surrounding the continuing resolution battle in December, numerous GOP members proclaimed a change in House leadership was needed. As of Friday morning, roughly a dozen GOP members were undecided on whether they’d vote for Johnson or not, while GOP whip Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN) said he was confident that Johnson had the votes to win. By the time the vote began, that number had allegedly been whittled down; Reps. Eli Crane and Greg Steube told CNN as they entered the House chamber that they were going to vote for Johnson, and Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN) signaled that she, too, would vote for Johnson.
President-elect Donald Trump was especially vocal in his endorsement of Johnson, aiding in whipping votes by calling Republican holdouts – a marked departure from his actions in 2023, when now-former Rep. Kevin McCarthy was elected Speaker after 15 rounds of voting. From CNN:
“I think the speaker will do very well. He’s a fine man. He’s a very fine individual, he’s religious, he’s smart, he’s strong. Everybody likes him. Everybody respects him,” Trump said in a brief phone interview.
The president-elect confirmed CNN’s reporting that he had been in touch with Republican holdouts, including GOP Rep. Chip Roy. When asked what he was telling these Republicans, Trump said he wasn’t “telling them anything.”
“I’m just saying, Look, we had the greatest presidential election. We won the popular vote by millions of votes. We had a great, we had a great election, and it would be nice to cement the election with an election here. I mean, that would just be a big, beautiful exclamation point,” he said.
Fox News’ Bret Baier reported immediately before the vote that Trump did not reach out Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), who emphatically stated that he was a no vote on Johnson.
As my colleague Joe Cunningham wrote, there were never really any alternatives:
Critics within the party who oppose Johnson have floated names like Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan, and Tom Emmer as potential replacements. But here’s the problem: none of them have the necessary votes to secure the speakership. This lack of alternatives underscores the practicality of keeping Johnson at the helm. Attempts to oust him would only plunge the House into chaos, a scenario Republicans are keen to avoid with pivotal legislative priorities looming.
But not only do they not have the votes, they have also come out and endorsed Johnson – so the speculation that they are potential rivals seems absurd.
With that, Donald Trump secures a key victory ahead of confirmation battles in the Senate.
