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The success of President-Elect Donald Trump’s legislative agenda will depend upon whether or not Republicans can shut ranks in Congress. They practically failed on their very first vote.
Mike Johnson received reelection as Home speaker by the narrowest of margins this afternoon, and solely after two Republican holdouts modified their votes on the final minute. Johnson received on the primary poll with precisely the 218 votes he wanted to safe the required majority. The trouble he expended to maintain the speaker’s gavel portends a troublesome slog for Trump, who endorsed Johnson’s bid.
Johnson was properly wanting a majority after an preliminary tally within the Home, which elects a speaker in an extended, televised roll name throughout which each member’s title is known as. Three Republicans—Representatives Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, and Keith Self of Texas—voted for different candidates, and one other six refused to vote in any respect in a protest of Johnson’s management. The six who initially sat out the roll name forged their votes for Johnson when their names have been known as a second time. But it surely took practically an hour for Johnson to flip Norman and Self. After huddling with Johnson on and off the Home flooring, the three males walked collectively to the entrance of the Home chamber, the place Norman and Self modified their votes to place Johnson excessive.
The tense vote marked the second Congress in a row through which the formal, often ceremonial opening of the Home grew to become extremely dramatic. Two years in the past, conservative holdouts compelled Kevin McCarthy to endure 15 rounds of voting and days of horse-trading earlier than permitting him to change into speaker. With assist from Democrats, the identical group ousted him 9 months later, resulting in Johnson’s election as his substitute.
McCarthy’s chief nemesis was then-Consultant Matt Gaetz, who resigned his seat throughout his temporary bid to change into Trump’s lawyer basic (and forward of a bombshell report from the Home Ethics Committee alleging that he had intercourse with a 17-year-old, amongst different claims). The Republican taking part in Gaetz’s position this time was Massie, a seven-term Kentuckian with a libertarian streak who vowed to oppose Johnson even beneath risk of digital amputation. (“You can begin chopping off my fingers,” Massie informed Gaetz on Thursday evening in his former colleague’s new capability as a bunch on One America Information Community.)
But the members opposing Johnson weren’t as quite a few or dug-in as McCarthy’s adversaries. And though Trump backed McCarthy two years in the past, he was extra politically invested in Johnson’s success right this moment. A drawn-out combat for the speakership may have threatened his legislative agenda and even delayed the certification of his election. (The Home can not operate with no speaker, so it will not have been in a position to formally open and depend the Electoral Faculty ballots as required by the Structure on January 6.)
Even with right this moment’s comparatively swift decision, Johnson’s battle to stay speaker is an ominous signal for the GOP’s means to enact Trump’s priorities within the first few months of his time period. The bulk that narrowly elected Johnson will briefly change into slimmer as soon as the Senate confirms two Republican lawmakers to Trump’s Cupboard, creating vacancies pending particular elections to exchange them. And GOP divisions have already emerged over whether or not the occasion ought to launch its governing trifecta with a push to bolster the southern border or mix that effort with laws extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts.
Republicans have a much bigger buffer within the Senate, the place they management 53 seats. However within the Home, the GOP edge is 2 seats smaller than it was originally of the final Congress, and only one or two members can have the ability to defeat party-line votes with out assist from Democrats. Johnson’s predominant critics, together with Massie, Norman, and Self, assist Trump’s agenda within the summary, however they don’t seem to be loyalists of the president-elect. (Neither Massie nor Roy backed him within the GOP main final yr.) They’re much more hawkish on spending than Trump, who confirmed little concern for deficits in his first time period and has pushed Republicans to boost and even remove the debt ceiling earlier than he takes workplace—a transfer that would easy the passage of expensive tax cuts.
Minutes earlier than the vote right this moment, Johnson posted on X an inventory of commitments apparently geared toward mollifying a number of of the GOP holdouts. He pledged to create a pair of working teams to audit federal spending and work with Trump’s new Division of Authorities Effectivity to implement “beneficial authorities and spending reforms.” Johnson didn’t specify any cuts or determine how a lot cash he’d suggest trimming from the price range.
His pledges weren’t sufficient, and Johnson reportedly wanted Trump’s assist to safe the ultimate votes. Afterward, the speaker’s critics made clear that the divisions on show right this moment hadn’t been totally resolved. Leaders of the conservative Home Freedom Caucus launched an announcement saying they’d backed Johnson “regardless of our honest reservations” solely as a result of they wished to assist Trump’s agenda. A kind of members, Consultant Chip Roy of Texas, who initially withheld his vote for Johnson, warned the speaker that “there are a lot of members past the three who voted for another person who’ve reservations.”
Johnson’s opponents complained that he has been too fast to strike offers with Democrats—a perennial gripe that Home conservatives have with Republican leaders. However their temporary revolt right this moment provided a reminder of how a lot leverage Democrats would possibly retain in Trump’s Washington. Over the previous two years. Republicans who nominally managed the Home couldn’t go any important laws with out assist from Democrats. Their majority is even smaller now.
When Johnson addressed the Home after accepting the speaker’s gavel this afternoon, he famous that the Democratic minority chief, Consultant Hakeem Jeffries of New York, had provided to work with Republicans on considered one of Trump’s prime priorities—securing the border. “I’m relying on it,” Johnson mentioned. If right this moment’s battle was any indication, the reelected Republican speaker, together with the reelected Republican president, is perhaps counting on Democrats greater than they’d like.