US House elects conservative new speaker

Republicans in the US House of Representatives on Wednesday ended weeks of tumult that left Congress with one working legislative body by electing  Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana as House speaker on the first vote. 

Johnson swept on the first ballot with support from all Republicans. The 51-year-old social conservative is little known outside Congress and is said to have few foes, but he has an important GOP backer: Donald Trump.

"Congratulations to Rep Mike Johnson" former president Donald J. Trump said in a post on Truth Social, adding that Johnson will be a "GREAT 'SPEAKER'".

Johnson is a strong ally of Trump. He defended the then-president during the impeachment hearings and opposed certifying the 2020 election of Joe Biden. A constitutional lawyer, he wrote a brief offering a legal justification for trying to overturn the 2020 election and recruited House Republicans to sign a legal brief rejecting the election results. 

In a statement, President Joe Biden congratulated Johnson and said the GOP needed to "move swiftly to address our national security needs and to avoid a shutdown in 22 days".

Johnson, who was a political dark horse just the day before taking the highest position in the lower chamber, promised to reach across the aisle despite his differences with House Democrats to address the country's issues.

Johnson said Republicans would "dispense with all of the usual ceremonies and celebrations" and get to work. "You're going to see an aggressive schedule in the days and weeks ahead," he said.

He joined Congress in 2017 after serving in the state Legislature. The son of a firefighter who was critically burned and disabled in the line of duty, Johnson is the father of four children. 

A lawyer and former chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, he is known for conservative stances on cultural issues and spending. He has voted for a national abortion ban, co-sponsored a 20-week abortion ban and has proposed legislation that would make it a federal crime to transport a minor across state lines for an abortion. He also supports LGBTQ restrictions.

There has been a split in the House GOP over aid to Ukraine. Johnson voted against two different appropriations bills that provided aid in 2022 and just last month. 

"American taxpayers have sent over $100 billion in aid to Ukraine in the last year," Johnson said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, in February. "They deserve to know if the Ukrainian government is being entirely forthcoming and transparent about the use of this massive sum of taxpayer resources." 

An evangelical Christian, he hosts a religious podcast with his wife, Kelly, a licensed pastoral counselor. In it, Johnson often talks at length about his vehement opposition to abortion, calls the Democratic agenda socialist and rails against the prosecution of Trump in his efforts to interfere in the 2020 election.

In his first address to Congress as speaker, Johnson said that he will bring to the floor "in just a little while" a resolution in support of Israel. 

After Israel, Johnson said addressing the "broken border" will be the second priority of House Republicans.

Congress faces a mid-November deadline to keep the government funded. In a letter to his colleagues, Johnson proposed advancing a temporary spending measure until either Jan 15 or April 15, while working to advance eight of 12 individual annual appropriations bills that haven't yet cleared the House. 

Lawmakers also will have to deal with the Biden administration's $106 billion request to fund aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan and manage the flow of migrants at the US border. Last month, 117 House GOP lawmakers, including Johnson, voted against $300 million in security assistance for Ukraine.

Johnson wasn't the first choice of his GOP colleagues. Representative Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the No 3 House Republican, defeated him Tuesday morning in an internal vote for the speaker nomination.

But hard-right conservatives forced Emmer to withdraw. Then a second round of nominations was held, but Johnson didn't initially win a majority. He finally prevailed after multiple rounds of voting and emerged as the fourth Republican nominee in what had become a cycle of political infighting since Kevin McCarthy's ouster as speaker. 

After 22 days and four House Republican speaker nominees, the Louisiana representative won a 220-209 tally to become the 56th speaker. All Democrats voted for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. 

Any candidate for speaker needs a majority of votes in the 433-member House, assuming all members vote for an individual. Republicans hold 221 seats, compared with 212 for Democrats, though some members were absent.

Agencies contributed to this story.