GOP Reps. Massie, Self, and Norman voted for other lawmakers aside from Johnson, but Norman and Self later changed their vote to support Johnson.
Mike Johnson was elected to be the House Speaker of the 119th Congress on Friday with the first round of voting with 218 votes. Rep. Thomas Massie voted for Tom Emmer. GOP Reps. Keith Self and Ralph Norman intially voted for other lawmakers aside from Johnson, but later changed their vote to support Johnson.
Johnson faced some pressure after the government spending deal was passed after three attempts in mid-December. A budget deal was passed in order to avert a government shutdown. Johnson had to get 218 votes in order to be elected to the Speaker role and could only afford two GOP members peeling off. The Democrats had nominated Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) in order to be the House Speaker.
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View on XThe vote was 218 for Johnson and 215 for Jeffries and three voted for others.
During the voting, some GOP lawmakers, including, Andy Biggs, Andy Harris, Andrew Clyde, Paul Gosar, Chip Roy, Mike Waltz, and Michael Cloud, initially did not vote, but most voted later on in favor of Johnson.
Trump endorsed Johnson leading up to the vote on Friday, he said on social media earlier this week, "Speaker Mike Johnson is a good, hard-working, religious man. He will do the right thing, and we will continue to WIN. Mike has my Complete & Total Endorsement. MAGA!!!"
Rep. Thomas Massie also indicated he would not be voting for Johnson ahead of the vote. He instead voted for Rep. Tom Emmer, who was the GOP Whip of the 118th Congress.
A new House rule has been proposed that will make it a requirement to have the support of nine of the majority party House members to bring a motion to vacate the Speaker of the House in the 119th Congress. In order to bring a motion, only one member had to bring the motion in order to force a vote. That rule was used by former Rep. Matt Gaetz to oust former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
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