Mike Johnson Wins GOP Speaker Nomination, Hours After Emmer Drops Out

On Tuesday night, House Republicans picked Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) to be their fourth nominee for Speaker of the House after Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was ousted earlier this month when eight Republicans joined in with all House Democrats to vote in favor of Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-FL) motion to vacate the chair.

Earlier in the day, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) earned the nomination, but ended up withdrawing a mere few hours later after it was clear he did not have the votes. Twenty-six House Republicans expressed their opposition, with former and potentially future President Donald Trump likely sealing Emmer’s fate with a TruthSocial post that came out not long after Emmer got the nomination.

Johnson had been on the ballot earlier on Tuesday as well, and came in slightly before Emmer during that ballot race. Later on Tuesday, Johnson had been up Republican Rep. Byron Donalds (FL), another contender for both the Tuesday afternoon and evening votes. Rep. Roger Williams (TX) had also been in the running as well as House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (TN), the latter who made the decision to drop out.

But, as POLTICO’s Olivia Beavers has highlighted in her several posts to X about the rounds of voting, Johnson could have a serious problem. More members voted for “Other” than they did Donalds. When a vote was requested and took place to see who those members chose, it came down to McCarthy. It’s worth noting that McCarthy supports Johnson, though.

Radio host Christopher Calvin Reid even pointed out it’s time to put McCarthy back in as speaker.

JOHNSON will win and then their will be at least 20 people who whine about him and then nothing will happen. At this point everyone needs to just vote for Kevin and @mattgaetz needs to apologize for doing all of this. But for God’s sake vote any republican in as speaker!

— Christopher Calvin Reid (@ReidFirm) October 25, 2023

Just as the nominees before him had an issue when it comes to getting enough votes, Johnson may face the same trouble, thus a roll call vote is also taking place to decide whether to even bother bringing his nomination to the House floor.

Later on Tuesday night, however, a sense of optimism appeared to come over House Republicans, with the plan being a full House vote on Wednesday, at about 1:00pm.

No one in the room voted against Johnson https://t.co/sNyxh0AV7w

— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) October 25, 2023

“I think we are there,” says Roy of Johnson winning the nomination, said he’d be “mightily” surprised if he doesn’t

— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) October 25, 2023

GOP Speaker nominee Johnson on Speaker vote: “The intention is to go at noon tomorrow.” (The vote will really start sometime around 1 pm et)

— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) October 25, 2023

Of the three other nominees that House Republicans have had so far for speaker, only one–House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) made it to the House floor for a full vote. Three rounds of voting took place, during which he lost support each time, before the conference voted to drop him as the nominee last Friday. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) was the nominee for a little more than a day before dropping out, and as mentioned, Emmer only lasted a few hours.