The lobbying arm of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank, gives Johnson a lifetime score of 90% for his voting record.
New Speaker Mike Johnson Made His Name as Cultural Conservative
WASHINGTON—In choosing Mike Johnson as the new House speaker, Republicans have cast their lot with a little-known congressman from Louisiana who has made his name pushing conservative positions on cultural issues and who played a key role in unsuccessful legal efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
After 22 days without a speaker, House Republicans came together to elect Johnson for the post Wednesday after three other better-known nominees failed to unite the fractured conference.
Johnson, 51 years old, represents Louisiana’s deep-red fourth district, in the state’s northwest that includes Shreveport, where he grew up. Johnson is the son of a firefighter who was critically burned and disabled in the line of duty. He is the father of four children of his own.
Johnson was elected to Congress in 2016 after serving in the Louisiana state legislature. He has been an attorney with a focus on social conservative issues, including defending the state’s same-sex marriage ban before the Louisiana Supreme Court. His opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion along with support for religious freedoms has continued to guide him as a legislator.
As vice chairman of the House Republican Conference, Johnson was one of seven elected leaders for the party. However, he was seen as far enough removed from the top positions that members looking for new leadership—even more moderate lawmakers who might differ with him on some issues—were supportive of him taking over.
- “He is not swampy,” said Gaetz, who launched the vote that first ousted former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.).
- “He is not beholden to the lobbyists and special interests. Even when we disagree, it comes from a place of sincerity, not whoever’s donated to his campaign.”
Democrats called Johnson an extremist. They said his opposition to abortion and efforts to overturn the 2020 election results had been losing issues for Republicans in the 2022 election. When at least one Republican who will have a tough election next year voted for Johnson, a Democratic voice could be heard shouting “Bye! Bye!”
Rep. Pete Aguilar (D., Calif.), the chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said on the House floor Wednesday that Republicans were choosing a person who “can pass their extreme litmus test to oppose marriage equality, enact a nationwide abortion ban without exceptions, gut Social Security and Medicare, support overturning a free and fair election.”
On paper, Johnson will mark a break from the prior House Republican leadership team. McCarthy, along with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R., La.) and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R., Minn.) all voted for the stopgap measure that is keeping the government funded through Nov. 17. All three also voted for $40 billion in aid to Ukraine in 2022, and again this year for about $300 million toward the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. Johnson voted against those measures.
Now that Johnson is speaker, the question is how firmly rooted Johnson’s beliefs are about those funds, or whether he is part of a perennial “vote no, hope yes” caucus.
- Without a stopgap measure, the government is set to run out of money next month.
- Among other things, it pushed an idea long associated with former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) to turn Medicare into a “premium support” system in which beneficiaries would receive financial assistance to buy health insurance through a regulated Medicare exchange.
- The plan also proposed raising the retirement age to 69. For people born in 1960 and later, the current retirement age is 67.
- Johnson has played a key role pushing Trump’s false claims of election fraud. In 2020, Johnson organized an amicus brief signed by 126 House Republicans supporting a lawsuit filed by Texas’ attorney general arguing that Texas could challenge the election results in four swing states won by President Biden.
- The conservative Supreme Court rejected the lawsuit.
- At the time, Democrats were so upset that one member, Rep. Bill Pascrell (D., N.J.) argued that then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) should bar the GOP signatories from taking their seats, saying that they were attempting to “obliterate public confidence in our democratic system” by installing an “unelected dictator.”
In the lead-up to Johnson’s election, Republicans had rallied around three other speaker nominees who all ultimately dropped out of the running after it became clear there wasn’t enough support to be elected on the House floor.
- For Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio), a conservative with many similar stances to Johnson’s, some moderate Republicans said they couldn’t back him because of past positions he had taken which they viewed as out of the mainstream.
- However, they were united in backing Johnson, who is seen as more personable and less combative than Jordan.
- He was ranked 429th out of 435 lawmakers in the 2021 bipartisan index kept by the Lugar Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University, situated among members of the staunchly conservative House Freedom Caucus.
- The measure scores how well members of opposite parties work together using bill sponsorship data.
- Johnson has proposed legislation on issues central to Republicans’ policy agenda, including a bill that would make it a federal crime to transport a minor across state lines for an abortion. He is strongly opposed to abortion access.
- Another proposal would cut off federal funding to any school district, museum or other organization that exposes a child younger than 10 to the topic of gender identity or sexual orientation, enabling parents to sue over violations.
Democrats say medical interventions provide necessary relief to youth struggling to manage deep distress. Clinicians who defend providing gender-affirming care to minors say there is more harm in denying the care to youth and that the matter has been subject to extensive study and research.
- Some critics of the Equal Rights Amendment have said they worry restricting federal funds for abortions could be struck down under the ERA because only women can get pregnant. Its proponents disputed that its passage would automatically undermine all such limits.
For his own accounts, McCarthy brought in more than $14 million between January and September, Federal Election Commission data show, leaving the former speaker’s campaign with about $10.6 million cash on hand.
- Meanwhile, Johnson has brought in roughly $550,000 this cycle for his re-election effort, federal campaign finance data show.
- Contributors to one of his fundraising arms mostly included executives at logistics firms in his congressional district, as well as retirees.
- Johnson raised a little more than $1.2 million on average each election cycle since running for Congress in 2016, and his campaign has about $1.1 million in the bank as of late September.
- He earned about $29,800 in income from online courses he taught at Liberty University, the evangelical Christian institution founded by the late Jerry Falwell Sr.
- He also has few debts, including only a home mortgage valued between $250,000 and $500,000, a small personal loan and a home equity line of credit.
- His salary as speaker will increase to $223,500, up from the $174,000 he has earned as a rank-and-file member.
Write to Eliza Collins at eliza.collins@wsj.com, Siobhan Hughes at Siobhan.hughes@wsj.com and Katy Stech Ferek at katy.stech@wsj.com
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