House GOP conference chair Elise Stefanik nominates Mike Johnson
House Republican Conference chair Elise Stefanik nominated speaker designee Mike Johnson on the House floor Wednesday as the GOP looks to elect a speaker after failing to fill the vacancy for three weeks.
“On behalf of the House Republican conference, I rise today to nominate the gentleman from Louisiana, Mike Johnson, as speaker of the people’s house,” Stefanik said, which followed loud applause.
What we’re covering here
- Speaker vote: The House will vote soon on the speakership bid of Rep. Mike Johnson. The Louisiana lawmaker became the GOP’s fourth speaker nominee Tuesday after Rep. Tom Emmer dropped out. Johnson has been a vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump and was a key congressional figure in the failed efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
- About the vote: A speaker needs a majority of the full House to be elected. Members can change their vote until the gavel comes down.
- What’s at stake: House Republicans face intensifying pressure to elect a new speaker after former Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted more than three weeks ago. The House remains effectively frozen without a speaker — a dire situation as Congress faces a November funding deadline and as crisis unfolds abroad in Ukraine and with Israel’s war against Hamas.
- House chamber mood is chipper and lively ahead of speaker vote
Speaker designee Mike Johnson is working the floor ahead of his speakership vote, shaking hands and taking selfies with members.
A member approached and handed him a book that appeared to have “Jesus” written on the front. Several members have also handed him letters which he is carrying around.
Rep. Jim Jordan is seated in the back of the chamber, frowning, seated next to Rep. Warren Davidson, one of his allies.
Rep. Elise Stefanik is positioned at the dais ready to nominate Johnson.
The overall mood in the chamber is chipper, members are chatty, and laughter can be heard echoing from various conversations.
Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar has been on the GOP side exclusively this morning, talking to Stefanik for a while.
Rep. Eli Crane has his kids in the chamber and is seated near the back right behind GOP hardliners Reps. Ken Buck, Andy Biggs, and Matt Rosendale.
Rep. Don Bacon is seated next to New York GOP members Nick LaLota and Anthony D’Esposito, as he did for the previous votes.
Jeffries doesn’t see much difference between Johnson and McCarthy’s politics
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said he doesn’t see a lot of daylight between Speaker designee Rep. Mike Johnson and former House Speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy.
Jeffries told CNN he doesn’t believe Johnson’s politics are more conservative than that of McCarthy.
“Both Kevin McCarthy and Mike Johnson voted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. They both support a nationwide ban on abortion. They both want to criminalize abortion care, and they both want to undermine Social Security and Medicare. Those are core issues for Democrats. There’s no daylight between Mike Johnson and Kevin McCarthy on those issues,” he said.
When asked about whether he’d be open to a short-term spending bill with spending cuts, Jeffries said “no.”
Mike Johnson can only lose 4 Republican votes to win the speakership
From CNN’s Annie Grayer and Kristin Wilson
Two members have said they will be absent from the speaker vote today: Republican Derrick van Orden and Democratic Rep. Lou Correa.
With those two absences, plus two vacancies, there are expected to be 431 members casting a vote for speaker.
Speaker-designee Mike Johnson will need 216 votes to prevail, which means he can only lose four Republican votes and still claim the gavel.
Correa’s office told CNN that “yesterday afternoon, Mr. Correa was called back home to Orange County for an immediate family emergency. He hopes to be back and voting in Washington as soon as possible.”
Van Orden is in Israel and is not expected to be back, according to a source familiar.
Gaetz, who led effort to oust McCarthy, says he wouldn’t “fault” Johnson over a short-term funding bill
House GOP firebrand Matt Gaetz, who led the effort to strip the gavel from former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, said that he would give speaker designee Mike Johnson more leeway than McCarthy if he has to agree to a short-term funding bill to keep the government open.
“I wouldn’t fault speaker Johnson if we have to have some sort of bridge to those single subject bills, but that was never in the cards with Speaker McCarthy,” Gaetz told CNN’s Manu Raju, adding: “There’s a fundamental difference. Kevin McCarthy took six weeks off in August, which was the tell that he was never serious about single subject bills.”
He also said: “Mike Johnson’s goal is to get a single subject spending bills, Kevin McCarthy never had that goal, you might have said so. But like many things with Kevin McCarthy, it lacks truthfulness and sincerity.”
When asked by CNN whether he is giving a lot more leeway to Johnson, Gaetz said, “I trust Mike Johnson. And I know Mike Johnson wants to achieve the goals I wanted to achieve. I didn’t trust Kevin McCarthy because he wanted to achieve the goals that K Street wanted to achieve.”
On Ukraine aid, Gaetz said he was “heartened” that Johnson did not highlight further money for the war-torn country.
“I was heartened that last night when Mike Johnson gave his acceptance remarks, he talked about Israel and we didn’t hear so much about excessive involvement for the United States in figuring out who’s going to run Crimea,” Gaetz said.
