Mike Johnson became the fourth person to be nominated in two weeks after ousting Kevin McCarthy in a historic vote in early October.
Johnson – considered a newcomer to politics – lost the battle for the nomination against Emmer, but ran again when his party colleague announced his withdrawal.
But most things say that Johnson, like his three predecessors, will fail as a result of internal party frictions that have made it impossible for members to agree on a leader.
to fail
As for Tom Emmer, it was only a few minutes after his election by a disparate group of Republicans that he abandoned his candidacy. According to persistent whispers in the halls of Washington, he lacked support for his election from the entire House of Representatives.
Former President Donald Trump delivered the coup de grace, declaring from New York that Emmer was not a Trump supporter and that “it looks like he’s done. But we’ll see.”
If elected to the House of Representatives in 2017, against all odds, Johnson will become the least experienced speaker in more than a century.
Driving force
He is best known for being one of the driving forces behind an initiative in which more than 100 Republicans signed a document supporting the invalidation of the election results in four so-called swing states that President Joe Biden won in 2020.
Without the Speaker, the work of the House of Representatives is halted because bills cannot be approved.
It is a big problem when there is some support for Israel and an aid package for Ukraine in the pipeline. On November 17, a new budget solution must be found, otherwise the US state apparatus is threatened with closure.
On October 3, former Speaker of the House, Republican Kevin McCarthy, was forced from office in a historic vote. The main reason was criticism of McCarthy’s cooperation with Democrats to reach a budget solution and increase the US debt ceiling.
Behind the impeachment process was a right-wing faction within Republicans, led by Republican Matt Gaetz from Florida. Gaetz is part of the House’s conservative Freedom Caucus, which in principle wants to see a small state apparatus and low taxes.
After the impeachment, the caucus first nominated Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana for speaker, but he withdrew when it became clear he could not muster enough support.
The next nominee was Jim Jordan, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, co-founder of the Freedom Caucus and a close associate of former President Donald Trump. He also failed to collect the required votes.
As for the third candidate, Tom Emmer, it only took a few minutes after a disparate group of Republicans chose him to withdraw from the nomination.
Republicans were also unable to agree on a proposal that would give interim Speaker Patrick McHenry, whose sole job is to call a vote on a new president, expanded powers.
Republicans hold 221 of the 433 House seats (two of which are vacant), meaning that the next Speaker of the House must receive 217 votes, and thus can only “afford” four defections. Without the Speaker, the Council’s work stops and draft laws cannot be approved.
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