Mike Johnson Reelected as Speaker on ‘1st’ Ballot That Was Actually Like 3 Ballots
Republicans may be trying to show unity before Trump is sworn in, but today's little stunt shows that the party is actually fragile as hell.
Photo: Getty Images Politics
On Friday, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) won re-election as Speaker of the House during the first round of voting with a final tally of 218-215-1. But the so-called first ballot was more like multiple ballots after some Freedom Caucus clownery and a face-saving maneuver from Johnson.
Johnson, you’ll recall, was first elected speaker in October 2023 to replace former Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who needed a staggering 15 rounds of voting to win the job earlier that year. Yet members of the ultraconservative Freedom Caucus have been mad at Johnson for not demanding spending cuts in bipartisan budget bills. (As if President Joe Biden would have signed those into law.) President-elect Donald Trump endorsed Johnson for re-election, but it was not a guarantee because “half a dozen hard-liners” still opposed him as of Thursday evening, per the Washington Post.
Republicans have the narrowest House majority in nearly 100 years, meaning Johnson could only lose one vote. Before the vote, Johnson released a list of pledges to cut spending and Axios said those promises reportedly changed the minds of some holdouts.