US House of Representatives speaker Mike Johnson was re-elected to the chamber’s top job on Friday by a razor-thin margin that highlighted potential fissures among president-elect Donald Trump’s Republicans on Capitol Hill.
Mr Johnson appeared to initially fall short of the majority he needed to retain his job in a roll-call vote that lasted nearly two hours, but two Republican opponents switched their votes to support him after lengthy negotiations. He won re-election with 218 votes – the minimum number needed.
Republicans control the chamber by a razor-thin 219-215 majority.
The vote was an early test of the party's ability to hang together as it advances Trump's agenda of tax cuts and border enforcement. It also tested Trump's clout on Capitol Hill, where a handful of Republicans have shown a willingness to defy him.
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House Republicans have been racked by internal divisions over the last two years. Mr Johnson was elevated to speaker after the party ousted his predecessor Kevin McCarthy in the middle of his term.
Members of the US Congress milled around the chamber for more than half an hour after voting had concluded, while Mr Johnson and his lieutenants could be seen trying to persuade the holdouts.
It was not immediately clear what led Representatives Ralph Norman and Keith Self to change their minds and vote for Johnson after first voting against him. Another six Republicans had initially declined to vote at all before casting ballots for Johnson.
Representative Thomas Massie, a vocal opponent of Johnson who has long been a thorn in the side of his party's leadership, was the lone Republican to vote against him.
A Reuters photographer captured an image of Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who voted for Johnson, talking on her iPhone with the name Susie Wiles – Trump's incoming chief of staff – visible on the screen.
The House went through 15 rounds of voting over four days in 2023 before electing Mr McCarthy speaker.
The mild-mannered Louisiana representative (52) was vaulted from obscurity into one of Washington’s most powerful jobs during three weeks of turmoil in October 2023, when Republicans forced out McCarthy and struggled to agree on a successor. The conservative Christian lawyer emerged as a consensus pick, but has since struggled to keep his party unified.
He has sought to build a close relationship with Trump, who endorsed him on Monday following weeks of uncertainty.
“A win for Mike today will be a big win for the Republican Party,” Mr Trump posted online on Friday. Mr Trump returns to the White House on Inauguration Day, January 20th.
In a role that is second in line to the presidency after the vice-president, Johnson will have a big job ahead. In addition to taking on Trump's sweeping legislative agenda, Congress will need to address the nation's debt ceiling later this year.
Johnson's 219-215 Republican majority is likely to narrow even further, at least temporarily, if the Senate confirms two Republican lawmakers to positions in Trump's administration.
Trump has nominated Elise Stefanik to serve as ambassador to the United Nations and Mike Waltz to serve as his national security adviser. Another seat is vacant, as Republican Matt Gaetz resigned from Congress when he was nominated to serve as Trump’s attorney general. Mr Gaetz withdrew from that position as well in the face of allegations of sexual misconduct.
All three seats, which represent solidly Republican districts, are due to be filled in special elections later this year.
With the federal government already more than $36 trillion in debt, many congressional Republicans are expected to demand significant spending cuts.
Republicans were also sworn into their new 53-47 Senate majority on Friday with senator John Thune as their new leader, succeeding long-serving senator Mitch McConnell, who is stepping aside from leadership but remaining in office.
Mr Johnson over the past year angered some conservatives by repeatedly turning to Democrats to provide the votes to pass critical legislation, like bills to keep government agencies operating. He also faced a last-minute challenge late last month when Trump told House Republicans to scrap a government funding deal, demanding it also raise the nation’s debt ceiling.
A revised version of that Bill – not including Mr Trump’s debt-ceiling demand – passed the House only a few hours before the government would have shut down, and it received more support from Democrats than Republicans.
Congress is scheduled to meet on Monday to certify Mr Trump’s presidential election victory, a function it will be unable to perform without a speaker.
Mr Johnson has also looked to make his path for the next two years easier, by changing a rule agreed to by Mr McCarthy that allowed any one member of the House to call for the speaker’s ouster through what is known as a “motion to vacate”. Mr Johnson’s proposed rules would require nine members of the majority to agree before forcing the type of vote that led to Mr McCarthy’s ouster. – Reuters
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