Live updates: Rep Mike Johnson of Louisiana elected speaker of the House

Table Of Content

• presidential election
• Pre-Speaker congressional tenure (1999–
• Emmer faces difficult path to gavel after roll call vote, with about 20 holdouts
• Representatives
• House Republicans share schedule of next steps in speaker race and election
• California Assembly
• Partisan role
• Johnson enters speaker’s office for first time since being sworn in

Democrats again nominated their leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, criticizing Johnson as an architect of Trump’s legal effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election he lost to Democrat Biden. In the House, far-right members had refused to accept a more traditional speaker, and moderate conservatives didn’t want a hard-liner. While Johnson had no opponents during a private party roll call late Tuesday, some two dozen Republicans did not vote, more than enough to sink his nomination. President Joe Biden called to congratulate the new speaker and said it’s “time for all of us to act responsibly” with challenges ahead to fund the government and provide aid for Ukraine and Israel. House Republicans are once again scrambling with no clear path to elect a new speaker after voting to push Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan out of the race — the latest sign of the chaos and divisions that have engulfed the majority party and left the chamber in a state of paralysis. “The door to the speaker’s office now is open to the members and to the constituents, not just the lobbyists,” Rep. Matt Rosendale told reporters.

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Several members have said Emmer initially wanted to go to the floor today, but that seems highly unlikely unless he can flip some of the holdouts during the open forum. Reps. Byron Donalds, Mark Green, Mike Johnson and Roger Williams remain in the speaker race. Thirty-three of the "other" votes were cast for McCarthy, Rep. Kat Cammack of Florida said. Johnson continued to earn the most votes with 97, followed by Donalds with 31 votes, Green with 21 votes and Williams with 20 votes. Republicans not on the ballot earned 34 "other" votes, while there were three "present" votes, according to Rep. Randy Weber of Texas.

Pre-Speaker congressional tenure (1999–

House Republicans are planning to hold another candidate forum at 6 p.m., now that Emmer has dropped out of the race, Republican members told reporters. Rep. Kevin Hern, the chairman of the Republican Study Committee, told reporters that he decided to forgo his candidacy for speaker and is instead supporting Rep. Mike Johnson. Asked Tuesday evening by reporters whether Trump's opposition had been a deciding factor in his withdrawal from the speaker race, Emmer replied, "I made my decision based on my relationship with the conference." It’s been two months since a klatch of House Republicans forced the ouster of then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy because, frankly, they didn’t like him.

Emmer faces difficult path to gavel after roll call vote, with about 20 holdouts

Other Republican rightwingers are unhappy, too, though they have so far stopped short of moving to topple the speaker. That might be because Trump, the party’s presumptive nominee for president who is currently on trial on fraud charges relating to paying hush money to keep American voters from learning about his alleged affair with an adult film star, has backed Johnson. Johnson’s decision to finally bring the package to a vote made a highly symbolic break with the GOP’s far right, the people who engineered his elevation to the speaker’s chair last October after toppling his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy.

He is confronting a mid-November deadline to pass a measure to fund the government to avert a shutdown. And he will need to lead a conference deeply divided over foreign policy as Congress considers the Biden administration’s $105 billion funding request for Israel, Ukraine and the southern border. Evoking his evangelical Christian faith, Mr. Johnson repeatedly referred to scripture in his speech from the House floor. The candidates were Reps. Byron Donalds of Florida, Chuck Fleischmann of Tennessee, Mark Green of Tennessee, Mike Johnson of Louisiana and Roger Williams of Texas. Although Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was not in the running, he received more votes than Donalds in the final round. Majority Leader Steve Scalise threw his support behind Johnson late Tuesday, calling him a "dear friend" in a statement.

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House Republicans share schedule of next steps in speaker race and election

Elevating Johnson to speaker gives Louisianians two high-ranking GOP leaders, putting him above Scalise. A lawyer specializing in constitutional issues, Johnson had rallied Republicans around Trump’s legal effort to overturn the 2020 election results. Lawmakers quickly reconvened to get back to work, approving a resolution saying the House “stands with Israel” and “condemns Hamas’ brutal war.” Next, they turned to a stalled government funding bill. But when GOP Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik rose to introduce Johnson’s name Wednesday as their nominee, Republicans jumped to their feet for a standing ovation.

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But McCarthy voiced confidence that he would secure 218 Republican votes by January. Some on the right opposed to Mr. Emmer cited his vote in favor of codifying federal protections for same-sex couples. Others railed against Mr. Emmer’s vote in favor of a stopgap spending bill put forward by Mr. McCarthy, the speaker at the time, to avert a government shutdown. Still others said he was insufficiently loyal to Mr. Trump, because he voted to certify the results of the 2020 election won by President Biden. But by late Tuesday night, Mr. Johnson appeared to have put together a coalition that brought him closer to capturing the speakership than any candidate has been since hard-right rebels deposed former Speaker Kevin McCarthy three weeks ago. Though it was not certain he had the votes to be elected, he said he planned to call for a floor vote on Wednesday at noon.

Rep. Ralph Norman said Republicans would expedite the candidate forum by having candidates each give just one-minute speeches before votes begin. Rep. Mike Johnson won on the final ballot for GOP speaker, defeating Rep. Byron Donalds, according to a tweet by Rep. Elise Stefanik. McCarthy, who was not a nominee, received 43 votes, and there was one other vote of "present."

Shortly after Emmer was elected as the GOP's nominee for speaker, several conservative lawmakers publicly announced plans to vote against him when the House convenes for a formal floor vote. He told reporters Johnson had 84 votes, and 31 votes were cast for other candidates. Johnson, a former radio host from Louisiana, was first elected to Congress in 2016. The House has now been without an elected speaker for three weeks, which means that it has not been able to consider or pass legislation to address a rising number of domestic and foreign crises, including providing aid for Israel or Ukraine.

Almost immediately after Mr. Johnson was elected, lawmakers began debating a resolution expressing solidarity with Israel and condemning Hamas, which passed overwhelmingly. "I made my decision based on my relationship with the conference," Emmer told reporters when asked whether Trump helped doom his candidacy. Scalise had been the party's first nominee after McCarthy was ousted, but withdrew his name one day after winning the internal GOP vote.

There was a potential sign of trouble for Johnson — McCarthy, who was not a declared candidate, received 43 votes in the final round of voting, well more than the 29 votes won by Rep. Byron Donalds, who was an  official finalist in the race. Washington — Rep. Mike Johnson won the GOP nomination for House speaker Tuesday night, defeating Rep. Byron Donalds and becoming the fourth speaker designate selected by his party since Rep. Kevin McCarthy's historic removal as speaker — and the second in a single day. There’s a reason none of the last three Republican Speakers ended their tenures on their own terms. House Speakers John Boehner and Paul Ryan took the hint and exited early; McCarthy failed to read the room and was forcibly removed. Johnson isn’t quite at that point but he may have already lost his chance to show he can lead his caucus with anything approaching unity. And, once again, House Republicans seem to be readying the moment when they will incinerate one of their own over disagreements that are not easily distilled to easy-to-understand conversations in the districts that will decide the balance of power come early 2025.