Rep. Mike Johnson won a closed-door contest on Tuesday night to become his party’s fourth speaker nominee.
Now, the Louisiana lawmaker faces the much tougher task of securing the 217 votes he needs to win on the House floor. Earlier Tuesday, Johnson came in second to Majority Whip Tom Emmer, who then withdrew after former President Donald Trump publicly came out against him.
So Republicans went back to the drawing board, and made Johnson the latest aspirant to a position the fractured and exhausted conference can’t seem to fill. He beat out a field of four other candidates, including Byron Donalds in the final ballot by a 128 to 29 vote. Some 44 other Republicans didn’t vote for either of the two men.
Johnson hasn’t yet said if he will try to quickly go to the floor even though he remains short of the votes to be elected speaker. The earliest he could do so is noon on Wednesday, when the House reconvenes.
But Republicans have little appetite for a repeat of last week, when then-nominee Jim Jordan forced them to take three public votes despite lacking a path to 217. Shortly after that third vote, where Jordan lost 25 Republicans, the conference dumped him during a secret-ballot vote behind closet doors.
Johnson is already facing skepticism from fellow Republicans that he’ll prevail on the floor. If he’s unsuccessful it would make him the fourth speaker nominee since Kevin McCarthy was ousted earlier this month to be forced to withdraw despite being supported by a majority of the conference.
“He’s uniquely positioned to lose 30 votes on either side of the conference,” said Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).
Rep. John Duarte (R-Calif.), who is from a battleground district, also predicted Johnson won’t be able to get to 217 adding: “He couldn’t even get 100 earlier.”
Johnson does have ties throughout the conference. He formerly served as the Republican Study Committee chair and has a high-profile perch on the Judiciary Committee. And he got a boost shortly before Tuesday night’s votes started when Republican Study Committee Chair Kevin Hern endorsed him.
“This should be about America and America’s greatness. And for that I stepped aside and threw all my support behind Mike Johnson,” Hern said.
But with Republicans holding a four-vote majority, it leaves anyone hoping to lead the conference with a near-impossible task of having to unite the GOP’s bitterly divided factions after weeks of rising animosity.
Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) predicted that Johnson would come up short. “We keep doing the same thing over and over again, which I think is the definition of insanity, last time I checked,” he said.
Underscoring the jam Republicans are in, some in the party are floating the idea of returning Kevin McCarthy to the speakership — even though none of the eight Republicans who voted to oust him have apparently changed their minds.
It’s a dynamic that has frustrated others in the conference. Rep. Trent Kelly (R-Miss.), during a closed-door meeting on Tuesday, argued that the will-he-won’t-he questions about McCarthy are making it harder for the conference to land on a new speaker.
Duarte was part of a group of Republicans who supported McCatthy behind closed doors during Tuesday night’s votes, the latest example of the California Republican’s long shadow over the current debate.
“Who knows?” said Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio). “We might end up with speaker McCarthy. He’s still got the most votes.”
