Mike Johnson, a loyal ally of Donald Trump, has been elected speaker of the House of Representatives, ending weeks of congressional paralysis and signalling a sharp tack to the right for Republicans in the lower chamber.
In total, 220 House Republicans voted for Mr Johnson on the floor of the House on Wednesday. No Democrats backed his bid.
It was a show of unity for a Republican Party that had for more than three weeks struggled to unite behind a candidate after Kevin McCarthy was ousted at the hands of a rebellion led by Florida congressman Matt Gaetz.
The long-running saga exposed sharp ideological divisions in the Republican Party and raised fresh questions about Mr Trump’s influence in Washington.
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The impasse had prevented lawmakers from taking up crucial legislation, including a White House proposal for billions of dollars in additional aid to Israel and Ukraine.
Among Mr Johnson’s first tasks as speaker will be confronting a looming government shutdown. Lawmakers have until mid-November to agree a deal to continue funding the federal government.
He was the fourth Republican speaker nominee since Mr McCarthy was removed. House majority leader Steve Scalise, House judiciary committee chairman Jim Jordan and House majority whip Tom Emmer all failed to rally enough support from their own party to seize the speaker’s gavel.
Mr Johnson, a conservative representative from Louisiana, had been bullish on his chances late on Tuesday, speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill after he was selected as the party’s latest nominee by a secret ballot in a closed-door meeting.
“Democracy is messy sometimes, but it is our system. This conference that you see, this House Republican majority, is united,” Mr Johnson said. He vowed to “serve the people of this country” and “restore their faith in this Congress, this institution of government”.
Mr Johnson (51), has until now been a lower-profile member of Congress than Mr Scalise, Mr Jordan or Mr Emmer.
An evangelical Christian, Mr Johnson is a hardline social conservative, opposing access to abortion in nearly all cases, as well as same-sex marriage. In Louisiana, he has been a proponent of marriage “covenant” laws, which make it more difficult for couples to divorce.
Earlier this year, Mr Johnson voted against more US aid to Ukraine. He was also among the most vocal proponents of Mr Trump’s claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against him.
A lawyer by training, Mr Johnson led a group of more than 100 fellow Republicans in filing an amicus brief to the US supreme court in support of a Texas lawsuit that tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election in four swing states: Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. In the hours after the January 6th 2021 attack on the US Capitol, Mr Johnson voted against certifying Joe Biden’s electoral college victory.
Mr Johnson declined to answer a reporter’s question about his stance on the 2020 election late on Tuesday, simply saying, “next question”, while Virginia Foxx, a Republican congresswoman from North Carolina, told the reporter to “shut up”.
Mr Johnson became the party’s nominee on Tuesday just hours after Mr Trump torpedoed Mr Emmer’s candidacy in a blistering post on social media, calling the Minnesota congressman a “globalist Rino”, or Republican in name only.
On Wednesday, Mr Trump, who remains the undisputed frontrunner for the party’s nomination for the White House in 2024, posted another statement calling on Republicans to “go with the leading candidate, Mike Johnson” and “get it done, fast!” – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2023