Republican Mike Johnson has been re-elected as speaker of the United States House of Representatives with the crucial backing of incoming president Donald Trump, ending a bitter standoff that highlighted divisions and threatened to start the 2025 session in chaos.
Johnson initially appeared to fall short of the majority he needed to retain his job in an hour-long roll call vote, but after more than half an hour of negotiations, two Republican opponents switched their votes to support him.
He won re-election with 218 votes — the minimum number needed — against 215 opposed, with all Democrats backing House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Republicans control the chamber by a .
Republican representatives Thomas Massie, Ralph Norman and Keith Self originally all voted for candidates that were not Johnson.
Norman and Self subsequently changed their votes to support Johnson.
Congressional media outlet Punchbowl News reported that Johnson was able to keep his speakership ambitions alive after Trump intervened personally to Norman and Self just before they changed their votes.
Self confirmed that he had spoken to the president-elect.
Divisions among House Republicans
House Republicans have been racked by internal divisions over the last two years.
Johnson was elevated to speaker after the party ousted his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, in the middle of his term.
Johnson, the 52-year-old Louisiana representative, was vaulted from obscurity into one of Washington’s most powerful jobs during three weeks of turmoil in October 2023, when Republicans forced out McCarthy and struggled to agree on a successor.
Johnson, a conservative Christian lawyer, emerged as a consensus pick but has since struggled to keep his party unified.
During Johnson’s time as speaker, he’s been on the receiving end of conservative anger, in particular over his handling of spending negotiations, as fiscal hawks lined up to accuse him of being soft on the deficit.
He has sought to build a close relationship with Trump, who endorsed him on Monday following weeks of uncertainty.
Defeat for Johnson would have marked another embarrassment for Trump, who was shown the limits of his sway over House Republicans after they in December.
Mike Johnson’s narrow re-election as speaker shows the tensions among House Republicans, who have a wafer-thin majority. Source: Getty, SIPA USA / Aaron Schwartz
“Mike will be a Great Speaker, and our Country will be the beneficiary. The People of America have waited four years for Common Sense, Strength, and Leadership,” the president-elect posted on social media.
“America will be greater than ever before!”
What lies ahead?
The speaker wields key influence in Washington by presiding over House business and is second in line to the presidency after the vice president.
But Johnson has been weakened by the standoff with his party’s hardliners, who demonstrated the leverage they hold given the Republicans’ wafer-thin majority in the lower house of Congress.
In addition to taking on Trump’s sweeping legislative agenda, Congress will need to address the country’s debt ceiling later this year.
With the federal government already more than US$36 trillion ($58 trillion) in debt, many congressional Republicans are expected to demand significant spending cuts.
“After four years of high inflation, we have a big agenda. We have a lot to do, and we can do it in a bipartisan fashion,” Johnson said after being re-elected as he pledged to help Trump transform the US’ economy.
“We can fight high inflation, and we must. We’ll give relief to Americans, and we’ll extend the Trump tax cuts … We’re going to drastically cut back the size and scope of government, we’re going to return the power back to the people.”
