Louisiana Republican Mike Johnson Elected House Speaker

Late Tuesday, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) became the fourth Republican pick for the post since the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)

via: CBS News

Johnson, a Republican of Louisiana, won the election to become the new speaker of the House on Wednesday, ending three weeks of chaos since Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s historic ouster and taking his place as second in line for the presidency.

Johnson won the gavel with the support of all 220 Republicans in attendance, surpassing the 215-vote total that was required to win. All 209 Democrats in attendance voted for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the party’s House leader.

Johnson was the party’s fourth nominee for speaker in three weeks and took the place of Rep. Tom Emmer, whose candidacy lasted all of four hours on Tuesday. The two other candidates, Reps. Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan, withdrew their names from consideration earlier in the process after failing to unite the party.

The little-known Louisiana lawmaker has been in Congress since 2017 and has no experience in the House leadership. He laid out a plan for passing a series of government spending bills earlier in the week that attracted support from some of McCarthy’s detractors, and his broad support among the Republican conference was a signal of lawmakers’ desire to move past the divisive speaker fight and reopen the House.

Johnson now faces a daunting list of challenges, with a fast-approaching government shutdown chief among them. The House is staring down a deadline of Nov. 17, when current government funding expires. In a blueprint for the next few months that he circulated among colleagues earlier this week, Johnson said a stopgap measure extending funding until January or April may be needed to approve more spending and avoid a shutdown.

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