Mike Johnson gives House Republicans hope of fresh start after chaos

Author: Editors Desk Source: Financial Times

October 26, 2023 at 05:49

Mike Johnson is in his fourth term in the House of Representatives © Bloomberg

Rightwing Louisiana congressman and Trump ally is now one of the most powerful people in Washington

At the start of the week, Mike Johnson was a relatively junior member of Congress with little name recognition outside of the House of Representatives.

Now, the 51-year-old lawmaker from Shreveport, Louisiana, is the Speaker of the House, making him arguably the most powerful Republican in America, and second in the line of presidential succession.

Johnson’s election as Speaker on Wednesday afternoon capped a tumultuous month in Washington, after Kevin McCarthy was ousted in a rebellion by members of his own party, leaving Republicans struggling for more than three weeks to coalesce around a successor.

Johnson’s swearing-in also marked the beginning of a new era in Congress, and for House Republicans in particular, as they try to move forward in the face of big challenges at home and abroad.

Moreover, the election of Johnson — who has been unwaveringly loyal to Donald Trump and takes a hardline social conservative stance on everything from abortion to same-sex marriage to climate policy — signals the sharp shift the Republican party has made to the right in recent years.

“We stand at a very dangerous time. I am stating the obvious, we all know that the world is in turmoil,” Johnson, a four-term congressman, said in a speech to the House on Wednesday afternoon after taking the Speaker’s gavel. “But a strong America is good for the entire world.”

Johnson, an evangelical Christian, said that he believed God had prepared him for the challenge.

“I don’t believe there are any coincidences in a matter like this. I believe that scripture, the Bible, is very clear, that God is the one that raises up those in authority,” he told colleagues. “God has ordained and allowed each one of us to be brought here for this specific moment, in this time.”

But even fellow Republicans acknowledge Johnson, a relative political novice who has never chaired a congressional committee, faces a daunting in-tray as he gets to grips with the notoriously difficult role. John Boehner, who was the Republican Speaker of the House from 2011 to 2015, once likened the job to keeping “218 frogs in a wheelbarrow long enough to get a bill passed”.

“Every single person who becomes Speaker for the first time has a huge learning curve,” said Doug Heye, a Republican strategist and former top leadership aide to House Republicans. “Becoming Speaker, by definition, is on-the-job training.”

Johnson’s first order of business was introducing a resolution declaring lawmakers’ support for Israel in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks by Hamas. In the days and weeks to come, he will have to consider the White House’s request for a sweeping national security package that includes billions of dollars in additional aid not just for Israel, but also Ukraine — an add-on that is likely to divide a Republican conference that has been loath to provide more money to Kyiv. Johnson opposed further aid for Ukraine earlier this year.

Lawmakers are also staring down a looming funding deadline at home. If Congress cannot agree a plan to continue funding the federal government beyond November 17, a costly government shutdown could furlough millions of workers.

Several hardline Republicans — including those who ousted McCarthy — have suggested they would rather shut down the government than strike a deal with Democrats, who control both the Senate and the White House.

President Joe Biden issued a statement congratulating Johnson on his election, adding he would seek to work with the new Speaker in “good faith on behalf of the American people”. Still, many Democrats in Washington may struggle to find common ground with a hardline conservative whose views are so diametrically opposed to their own.

A married father of four, Johnson is a strict social conservative who championed the overturning of Roe vs Wade and has called for abortion to be banned in nearly all circumstances. The trained lawyer and former state legislator is also opposed to same-sex marriage, and in Louisiana was a proponent of “covenant marriage” laws that make it more difficult to divorce.

Arguably more worrying for many Democrats is his unwavering support for Trump, the former president and current frontrunner for the Republican nomination for the White House in 2024.

Johnson was a proponent of Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was rigged against him. He led more than 100 House Republicans in signing an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit filed at the Supreme Court seeking to invalidate the election results in four swing states.

“Johnson was not Republicans’ first choice, second, third or even fourth choice,” Mike Quigley, a Democratic congressman from Illinois, said after Johnson’s election on Wednesday. “Representative Johnson was the last resort to satisfy their extremist wing and placate former president Trump.”

For his part, Trump sought to take credit for Johnson’s election. On Tuesday, the former president all but torpedoed the chances of the party’s third Speaker nominee, Tom Emmer, calling him a “globalist Rino”, or Republican in name only, and setting the stage for Johnson’s election.

“This time yesterday, nobody was thinking of Mike,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday at a New York courthouse, where he is facing a civil fraud trial. “Then we put out the word and now he is the Speaker of the House.”