FINALLY! We Have A New House Speaker: Rep. Mike Johnson

Twenty-two days after Kevin McCarthy was ousted, 220 votes were successfully received for Rep. Mike Johnson (LA)-R to become the 56th Speaker of the House.

The Louisiana congressman was named Tuesday evening as the next candidate after Rep. Tom Emmer withdrew from his bid hours after getting approval.

Some of Johnson’s background includes:

One of 147 Republicans in Congress to object to the 2020 election results in key states.

Authored an amicus brief filed to the US Supreme Court in a case in which Texas sought to have swing-state results thrown out. On Tuesday night, Johnson refused to take a question about his work on Trump’s behalf – smiling as fellow Republicans booed and jeered a reporter with ABC News asking about his support for President Trump’s stance regarding the 2020 election.

Before running for office, Johnson was a constitutional attorney who worked for the Alliance Defending Freedom. Additionally, in 2016, when he ran for Congress, he told the Louisiana Baptist Message Johnson had “been out on the front lines of the ‘culture war’ defending religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and biblical values, including the defense of traditional marriage, and other ideals like these when they’ve been under assault.” He has since led efforts for a national “don’t say gay” bill, regarding the teaching of LGBTQ+ issues in schools, and is also opposed to gender-affirming care for children.

Reactions from Congress members on the Left were not surprising.

Introducing extremist GOP Speaker nominee Mike Johnson.

He was a key architect of the Jan 6th strategy to overturn the US election.

Here he is leading a crowd that’s booing and telling a Congressional correspondent to “shut up” when asking about it. https://t.co/M7Fi4rwaCG

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) October 25, 2023

You might be Googling who Mike Johnson is this morning.

Let me make it simple:

Johnson is a hard-right, pro-Trump, leading election denier in the House.

Sadly, this is what passes for Speaker material in the Republican conference.

— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) October 25, 2023

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) also voiced his concerns about Johnson stating, “Mike Johnson has a very pleasant demeanor, but his voting record is as extreme as the most extreme members of his conference with very few exceptions.”