House Speaker vote puts GOP unity to the test : NPR

Republicans are taking the first steps Friday to usher in a new era of full GOP control in Washington as Congress comes into session. But the usually ceremonial process in the House is already bogged down in political infighting over who should be elected Speaker of the House.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La, is running for re-election with the backing of the majority of Republicans but a few holdouts could revive the chaotic leadership battles that dominated their party for the past several years. Republicans again have a razor thin majority in the House and Johnson needs near unanimity among GOP members to gain the gavel again. If all lawmakers are present, he can only afford to lose one vote.

President-elect Trump endorsed Johnson earlier in the week, and posted on his social media channel hours before the vote, which Johnson re-shared. In the post Trump called Johnson “a fine man of great ability.”
 

The drama on the first day of the new Congress echoed the dynamic two years ago when Kevin McCarthy faced opposition from a group of conservatives to be elected speaker. After failing to get the votes, he negotiated concessions with his critics, including changes to the House rules. It took four days and 15 rounds of voting for McCarthy to be elected speaker. Nine months later McCarthy was ousted for working with Democrats to avoid a possible government shutdown. That set off several weeks of chaos when several top GOP leaders failed to secure enough support to get the gavel until Johnson, then a rank and file conservative member of the House Judiciary panel, was nominated with unanimous support.
 
Johnson argued Republicans needed to stick together to re-elect him Friday because it was critical that the party move to enact Trump’s agenda, now that Republicans hold both chambers of Congress and will have the White House when he’s inaugurated on January 20^th.

The speaker told Fox Business News a day before the vote that he believed he would get elected on the first ballot. “We actually have to fix everything, and that has to begin on day one, so we don’t have any time to waste. And I think that everybody recognizes that here.”

Electing a speaker is the first order of business in the new Congress and no other business can take place before what used to be ceremonial vote. GOP leaders scheduled a vote on rules package to govern the new session. That included a measure requiring that nine members would be needed to bring a motion to remove the speaker of the House, and that only Republicans would be allowed to bring up such a resolution.

The House is scheduled to certify the 2024 election results on Monday, January 6 – another reason why Johnson and GOP leaders party members to rally around him.