New 2025 Speaker of the House: MIKE JOHNSON
Nine Republicans remained holdouts until the very end of the first ballot. Reps. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., and Keith Self, R-Texas, were the final two votes to switch, putting Johnson over the top.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was reelected speaker for the 119th Congress on Friday afternoon after a bare majority of 218 Republicans eventually decided to vote in his favor.
The road to reelection was tumultuous for Johnson, as many Republicans have criticized him for capitulating to Democrats and maintaining the status quo of a House enslaved by the few members in leadership.
The Christmas spending battle was the latest example of the top-down strategy, where a Democrat- and Republican-leadership-negotiated "continuing resolution" (which was really a 1,547-page omnibus with major giveaways to Democrats) angered many in the Republican caucus.
While Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said early on that he would not support Johnson for speaker on Friday, nine Republicans remained holdouts until the very end of the first ballot. Two members, Reps. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., and Keith Self, R-Texas, were the final two votes to switch, putting Johnson over the top.
President-elect Donald Trump reportedly spoke to the two on the phone to encourage them to change their votes.
Nine members of a notoriously cagey majority party are more than enough to tank legislation given the razor-thin margin the Republicans hold. In the past, Johnson has turned to Democrats for votes to make up for conservative Republican detractors. He has received intense criticism from more conservative wings of his party for persistently working with Democrats instead of listening to their concerns.