Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the incoming Senate majority leader, said Friday that House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., will have “a really, really tough job,” navigating a narrow majority.
“I think he has been responsive to his members, but he’s got a lot of folks that are headed in different directions,” Thune said during an interview with “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker that took place as the House was selecting a new speaker. “I mean, as you know, that with a narrow margin like that, any individual member of the House of Representatives can have a huge impact.”
Thune also said he and Johnson could have a “strong working relationship,” even though the two haven’t worked closely before.
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., speaks to Kristen Welker of Meet The Press on Friday.
Johnson on Friday won a second term as speaker, a role to which members of his party first elected him in October 2023 after the previous speaker, former Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was ousted from the position.
Johnson won with a razor-thin majority of 218-215. On the first ballot, it appeared that three members of Johnson’s party had defected, casting their votes for someone else and costing Johnson the speakership. But before the vote closed and was officially tallied, Reps. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., and Keith Self, R-Texas, switched their votes to vote for Johnson. Ultimately, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., was the lone Republican to vote against Johnson.
In a letter signed by 11 members of the House Freedom Caucus that was released after the vote, the group outlined their demands for Johnson’s speakership, claiming that “we voted for Mike Johnson for Speaker of the House because of our steadfast support of President Trump and to ensure the timely certification of his electors. We did this despite our sincere reservations regarding the Speaker’s track record over the past 15 months.”
The demands included extending the House’s working calendar for this session, reversing several Biden administration policies “immediately” and ending stock trading by members of Congress.
Workers for the Architect of the Capitol place Sen. John Thune’s nameplate on the Republican leader’s suite in the U.S. Capitol, replacing Sen. Mitch McConnell’s name, which had been there for the last 18 years.
Republicans have just a slim majority in the incoming House, with 219 GOP lawmakers elected to the chamber and 215 Democratic lawmakers elected.
The incoming Senate leader, who is commanding a 53-47 Republican majority in the upper chamber, added that he will give Johnson “deference to how he runs the House.”
“He understands the House. I don’t,” Thune added.
Thune also noted that he expects Senate and House GOP leaders to work closely together and with the incoming president to succeed on their policy goals.
“I do think that they will need to be, and we will need to be as a Senate and with the White House working closely as a team, if we’re going to get an agenda done that we want to accomplish for the American people,” Thune said.
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., speaks to Kristen Welker of Meet The Press on Friday.
In a speech in the House chamber after he was re-elected as speaker, Johnson laid out part of that agenda, claiming Republicans earned a mandate from “a powerful new coalition.”
“This is a powerful new coalition of our country. It’s a coalition that’s asked that we purge the policies of America last and we bury them in the graveyard of history’s mistakes,” Johnson said.
“This Congress will renounce the status quo, and we will listen to the voices of the people. We will act quickly, and we will start by defending our nation’s borders. That’s the No. 1 priority,” he added.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
