On October 2nd, Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida introduced a motion to vacate Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy. McCarthy was ousted on a vote of 216-210 votes. The 216 representatives who voted for his removal comprised 208 Democrats and 8 Republicans led by Matt Gaetz.
The 118th Congress formed in the 2022 midterm elections resulted in a Republican majority, and California representative Kecin McCarthy was elected Speaker of the House. Yet, McCarthy faced heavy opposition during this election process from Matt Gaetz and the Freedom Caucus, a right-wing group in the house currently composed of 49 members. Consequently, it took 15 ballots and voting rounds for Kevin McCarthy to be appointed. A similar pushback to Kevin McCarthy ensued in the past several months, with disagreements surrounding government spending. In May, McCarthy worked with President Biden, agreeing to lift the debt limit for two years, avoiding an inevitable debt default. The agreement, in principle, capped government spending to current levels, which will increase by 1% in fiscal year 2025. This legislation faced pushback from Democrats and from the Freedom Caucus, leading to a bill to block federal protection on gas stoves. In September, the issue had intensified, and the Freedom Caucus would not comply with government spending bills. This led to what seemed like a government shutdown, with additional warnings from the Freedom Caucus instructing McCarthy not to side with democratic support. After McCarthy passed a continuing resolution, a type of appropriations legislation, Matt Gaetz filed a motion to vacate. Despite Democratic support for the bipartisan continuing resolution, McCarthy’s other policies were largely unattractive to Democrats, and as a result, they voted unanimously, with 8 Republicans, to oust Speaker McCarthy.
This removal of the Speaker was unprecedented and led to confusion about the ensuing appointment of McCarthy’s successor. North Carolina Rep. Patrick McHenry was appointed as interim Speaker on October 5th, though he was given limited authority. The new nominee for the position was Steve Scalise of Louisiana, who was chosen by the G.O.P. in secret by a vote of 113-99. Yet, the next day, he withdrew because he was unable to convince other Republicans to vote for him. Next, Jim Jordan, the representative for Ohio’s 4th district, was nominated for the position but was unable to secure 217 votes and lost on three separate occasions. Subsequently, Tom Emmer of Minnesota was nominated but was unable to convince far-right Republicans and members of the Freedom Caucus of his loyalty to conservative values. 22 days later, abruptly and with great success, Mike Johnson of Louisiana emerged as the new nominee. Johnson was able to unify members of the Freedom Caucus who opposed McCarthy, and more moderate Republicans who opted to vote against Jim Jordan. Mike Johnson beat Hakeem Jeffries with 220-209 votes this past Tuesday (Source: NYTimes).
Johnson’s nomination and appointment as Speaker of the House came as a shock to many because of his political inexperience and because of the short time frame in which he was elected. That begs the question: who is this new guy who is second in line to the presidency?
Mike Johnson has been a controversial figure for many reasons. First and foremost, he was a central figure in promoting that the 2020 election results were fraudulent. He approached the argument from several angles, mostly claiming that certain voting procedures during Covid-19 were unconstitutional. This argument appealed to many lawmakers and was crucial in gaining the support of 147 Republicans who opted to vote to block the certification of Biden.
Johnson also has a history of very conservative voting patterns, and voted against many bipartisan bills in his first few years as a representative. Johnson also has a history of opposing abortion and LGBTQ+ rights. Last year, he voted against a bipartisan bill to codify same-sex marriage. He introduced the “Stop the Sexualization of Children Act,” which sought to prohibit any discussion of sexual orientation with any child under the age of 10. In addition, Johnson has also co-sponsored legislation that would make gender-affirming care illegal to anyone under the age of 18. Despite having convinced centrist Republicans to appoint him as speaker, we can expect Johnson to continue this trend of voting for far-right legislation.
