Mike Johnson Is Speaker of the House. Again.
After a delay, Johnson secured the slimmest of majorities.
(UPDATE: After seeming to come up short in his bid to be named speaker of the House, Rep. Mike Johnson (R–La.) won support from a majority of members on Friday afternoon. Two Republicans—Rep. Ralph Norman (R–S.C.) and Rep. Keith Self (R–Texas)—changed their votes to support Johnson after initially voting for other members. This story has been updated throughout.)
After a delay, members of the House of Representatives supported Johnson in his bid to return to the top post in the chamber. He secured 218 votes, the bare minimum to have a majority in the chamber.
With 434 members seated on Friday as the new session began—Matt Gaetz, who was reelected to his Florida seat won't serve the term—any potential speaker needed 218 votes to seize the gavel. Johnson got 216, while Rep. Hakeem Jefferies (D–N.Y.) got 215, on the initial round of balloting.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R–Ky.) voted for Rep. Tom Emmer (R–Minn.), Rep. Ralph Norman (R–S.C.) voted for Rep. Jim Jordan (R–Ohio), and Rep. Keith Self (R–Texas) voted for Rep. Byron Donalds (R–Fla.), all apparently as protest votes. None of those members had been nominated for the speakership prior to the floor vote.
After a delay, Norman and Self changed their votes and backed Johnson. That's all he needed to secure a majority.
Some of Johnson's Republican critics circulated a letter in the hours before the speakership vote urging their colleagues to reject his reelection bid. The letter called attention to debt and spending issues, as well as Johnson's support for military aid to Ukraine and his willingness to court Democratic votes to pass various spending bills.
Johnson took an unlikely path to becoming speaker in the aftermath of former Rep. Kevin McCarthy's unprecedented ousting from the post. For now, he appears to have avoided falling victim to the sort of chaos that unseated his predecessor.
