Johnson Next Republican to Try to Win House Speaker Role

Another Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives may seek a floor vote Wednesday to try to become the chamber’s next speaker, after lawmakers struggled for three weeks to fill one of the top leadership roles in the U.S. government.

Republicans meeting in a closed-door session late Tuesday picked Representative Mike Johnson as their latest House speaker candidate, and the fourth since Representative Kevin McCarthy was ousted from the job.

Johnson is a lawmaker from the state of Louisiana who rallied Republicans around former President Donald Trump’s legal effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

He received 128 votes Tuesday night to beat other candidates. McCarthy, who was not a declared candidate, came in second place with 43 votes.

It was unclear if Johnson would be able to muster the support of most of the Republicans in the House, something the three previous candidates to replace McCarthy have been unable to do.

Republicans hold a slim 221-212 majority, and with Democrats united behind House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, any Republican candidate can only lose a few Republican votes and still achieve the simple majority threshold to win the speaker role.

Republicans moved on to Johnson after another candidate, Representative Tom Emmer, withdrew his candidacy earlier Tuesday.

Emmer had outlasted eight other candidates in rounds of secret balloting. The 62-year-old Emmer has served as majority whip, one of the top leadership posts in the House Republican Conference, since earlier this year.