Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson failed to immediately get reelected as House speaker in a largely ceremonial vote on Friday, Jan. 3, flashing warning signs of a turbulent speakership battle like his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, faced two years ago.
For only the second time in a century, House representatives weren’t able to come to a consensus on who to elect as House speaker in the first round of voting, effectively putting the congressional body into a standstill until a nominee can secure the majority of votes.
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Following standard practice, the House GOP nominated their leader, Speaker Johnson, for the role and Democrats nominated House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
If this were a typical year, each House member would vote along party lines — choosing either Johnson or Jeffries based on their affiliation — and the candidate who hails from the majority party would win the speakership with ease.
But a small handful of Republicans complicated the process on Friday by refusing to back Johnson, instead voting for other GOP lawmakers to prevent him from earning more than 50% of votes.
The act of rebellion resulted in a rare deadlocked House speaker election that will last as long as it takes for a round of voting to prove successful. House members cannot be sworn into the new congressional term or conduct any other business until a speaker is chosen.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson
House Republicans reelected Johnson to lead the House GOP in November, but only a few weeks later, Elon Musk and Donald Trump put him in a tough spot by urging Congress to kill the speaker’s spending bill just days before the government ran out of funding.
The scramble to compile a new spending bill at the last minute put a spotlight on some of the deals that Johnson had struck with Democrats in order to reach a bipartisan funding agreement, which upset some hardline Republicans.
Given that House Republicans have only a razor-thin majority in the new 119th Congress — there are 219 Republicans, 215 Democrats and one vacancy — the criticism of Johnson sparked doubts about whether he could hold onto the gavel in the upcoming term.
Only two Republicans needed to oppose him on Friday in order to stand in the way of him becoming the House speaker again.
Related: How Mike Johnson, One of Congress’ Staunchest Religious Conservatives, Became Second in Line to the President
Win McNamee/Getty Kevin McCarthy rallies votes during the tense January 2023 House speaker election
Johnson’s predecessor, former California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, battled similar headwinds in January 2023, when his candidacy caused the first deadlocked House speaker election in 100 years.
McCarthy refused to withdraw his candidacy for speaker, leading to a contentious 15 rounds of voting that spanned four days.
In McCarthy’s case, he ultimately won the gavel by making major concessions to far-right members of his caucus, including agreeing that at any time, any one representative could call a vote to remove him from his position. That deal came back to bite him fewer than nine months later, when then-Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz filed a “motion to vacate” that made McCarthy the first House speaker in history to be ousted from the role.
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McCarthy’s unprecedented removal as speaker effectively shut down Congress for three weeks as Republicans struggled to agree on his replacement. Johnson eventually earned the title.
Two months after McCarthy was removed as speaker, he resigned from Congress altogether.
Related: Kevin McCarthy Allegedly Caught in Physical Altercation with Republican Who Ousted Him — Then ‘a Chase Ensued’
President-elect Trump tried to help Johnson from meeting the same fate as McCarthy before Friday’s speaker election began, publicly announcing his “complete & total endorsement” on Monday, Dec. 30.
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