The success of President-Elect Donald Trump’s legislative agenda will rely on whether or not Republicans can shut ranks in Congress. They almost failed on their very first vote.
Mike Johnson gained reelection as Home speaker by the narrowest of margins this afternoon, and solely after two Republican holdouts modified their votes on the final minute. Johnson gained on the primary poll with precisely the 218 votes he wanted to safe the required majority. The hassle he expended to maintain the speaker’s gavel portends a tricky slog for Trump, who endorsed Johnson’s bid.
Johnson was properly wanting a majority after an preliminary tally within the Home, which elects a speaker in a protracted, televised roll name throughout which each and every member’s identify known as. Three Republicans—Representatives Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, and Keith Self of Texas—voted for different candidates, and one other six refused to vote in any respect in a protest of Johnson’s management. The six who initially sat out the roll name forged their votes for Johnson when their names had been known as a second time. However it took almost an hour for Johnson to flip Norman and Self. After huddling with Johnson on and off the Home flooring, the three males walked collectively to the entrance of the Home chamber, the place Norman and Self modified their votes to place Johnson excessive.
The tense vote marked the second Congress in a row by which the formal, normally ceremonial opening of the Home grew to become extremely dramatic. Two years in the past, conservative holdouts compelled Kevin McCarthy to endure 15 rounds of voting and days of horse-trading earlier than permitting him to change into speaker. With assist from Democrats, the identical group ousted him 9 months later, resulting in Johnson’s election as his alternative.
McCarthy’s chief nemesis was then-Consultant Matt Gaetz, who resigned his seat throughout his transient bid to change into Trump’s legal professional basic (and forward of a bombshell report from the Home Ethics Committee alleging that he had intercourse with a 17-year-old, amongst different claims). The Republican enjoying Gaetz’s function this time was Massie, a seven-term Kentuckian with a libertarian streak who vowed to oppose Johnson even beneath menace of digital amputation. (“You can begin slicing off my fingers,” Massie instructed Gaetz on Thursday night time in his former colleague’s new capability as a bunch on One America Information Community.)
But the members opposing Johnson weren’t as quite a few or dug-in as McCarthy’s adversaries. And though Trump backed McCarthy two years in the past, he was extra politically invested in Johnson’s success right this moment. A drawn-out struggle for the speakership may have threatened his legislative agenda and even delayed the certification of his election. (The Home can not perform and not using a speaker, so it might not have been capable of formally open and rely the Electoral Faculty ballots as required by the Structure on January 6.)
Even with right this moment’s comparatively swift decision, Johnson’s wrestle to stay speaker is an ominous signal for the GOP’s potential to enact Trump’s priorities within the first few months of his time period. The bulk that narrowly elected Johnson will quickly change into slimmer as soon as the Senate confirms two Republican lawmakers to Trump’s Cupboard, creating vacancies pending particular elections to switch them. And GOP divisions have already emerged over whether or not the social gathering ought to launch its governing trifecta with a push to bolster the southern border or mix that effort with laws extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts.
Republicans have a much bigger buffer within the Senate, the place they management 53 seats. However within the Home, the GOP edge is 2 seats smaller than it was initially of the final Congress, and only one or two members could have the facility to defeat party-line votes with out help from Democrats. Johnson’s major critics, together with Massie, Norman, and Self, help Trump’s agenda within the summary, however they don’t seem to be loyalists of the president-elect. (Neither Massie nor Roy backed him within the GOP main final yr.) They’re much more hawkish on spending than Trump, who confirmed little concern for deficits in his first time period and has pushed Republicans to boost and even get rid of the debt ceiling earlier than he takes workplace—a transfer that would easy the passage of pricey tax cuts.
Minutes earlier than the vote right this moment, Johnson posted on X a listing of commitments apparently geared toward mollifying just a few of the GOP holdouts. He pledged to create a pair of working teams to audit federal spending and work with Trump’s new Division of Authorities Effectivity to implement “really useful authorities and spending reforms.” Johnson didn’t specify any cuts or determine how a lot cash he’d suggest trimming from the price range.
His pledges weren’t sufficient, and Johnson reportedly wanted Trump’s assist to safe the ultimate votes. Afterward, the speaker’s critics made clear that the divisions on show right this moment hadn’t been totally resolved. Leaders of the conservative Home Freedom Caucus launched an announcement saying they’d backed Johnson “regardless of our honest reservations” solely as a result of they needed to help Trump’s agenda. A type of members, Consultant Chip Roy of Texas, who initially withheld his vote for Johnson, warned the speaker that “there are lots of members past the three who voted for another person who’ve reservations.”
Johnson’s opponents complained that he has been too fast to strike offers with Democrats—a perennial gripe that Home conservatives have with Republican leaders. However their transient revolt right this moment supplied a reminder of how a lot leverage Democrats would possibly retain in Trump’s Washington. Over the previous two years. Republicans who nominally managed the Home couldn’t go any vital laws with out assist from Democrats. Their majority is even smaller now.
When Johnson addressed the Home after accepting the speaker’s gavel this afternoon, he famous that the Democratic minority chief, Consultant Hakeem Jeffries of New York, had supplied to work with Republicans on one in all Trump’s prime priorities—securing the border. “I’m relying on it,” Johnson mentioned. If right this moment’s wrestle was any indication, the reelected Republican speaker, together with the reelected Republican president, could be counting on Democrats greater than they’d like.
