Rallying to Trump’s call, Republicans reelect House speaker

Conservative Republicans in the House have a fiercely independent streak that flares most visibly when the party needs to rally together—often over whether the plan of the day is conservative enough. But on Friday, that fierce independence gave way to an even fiercer loyalty to the incoming administration.

The House voted to retain Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., as speaker, foreshadowing a hawkish approach by President-elect Donald Trump to dealing with Congress. While presidents getting involved in legislative affairs isn’t new, Trump’s engagement with Congress will likely play an outsized role amid the slim Republican majority in the House. It takes only two stray Republican votes to tank a GOP-backed bill. Like the speaker’s vote, Trump’s backing could make or break legislation on top priorities such as tax and border policy and—perhaps most notably—government spending.

Johnson avoided defeat after a critical endorsement from Trump gave him the political backing needed to remain speaker. Despite deep divisions over whether Johnson can deliver GOP priorities, the chamber voted 218-215 on its first try to elect a speaker, keeping the gavel in Johnson’s hands.

Initially, the vote looked poised to fail when three Republicans voted for alternatives to Johnson. But within an hour, Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, and Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., flipped their votes in support of Johnson.

“This whole thing is about the Trump agenda—making it as successful as possible,” Self told WORLD after the vote.

Only one Republican holdout, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., ultimately cast his ballot for someone else: Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn.

Throughout the week, Trump made his support of Johnson explicit.

“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,” Trump posted on X.

But he also worked the phones on an individual level.

“I’ve talked to him twice today,” Self said. “We had lively conversations. I articulated to him we want the strongest Republican conference, and this is what this is all about.”

Self said he got on the phone both before and during the speaker vote.

Richard Conley, professor of political science at the University of Florida, said Trump’s active campaigning for Johnson is an early test—albeit an imperfect one—of the incoming president’s influence on Capitol Hill.

“How much exact power does he have [in Congress]? The margins are really thin and so I don’t know that there is a whole lot of historical analogy to this,” Conley said.

Members get that sense too.

Asked about his expectations for the 119th Congress, outgoing Rep. John Duarte, R-Calif., told WORLD in December that he believes the president will have to play a more vocal role to secure the outcomes he wants and prevent outliers from breaking party unity.

“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Duarte told WORLD.

But Trump’s influence isn’t sovereign, either. Recently, Republicans rebuffed Trump’s calls to suspend the debt ceiling, the cap on how much money the country can legally borrow. Fiscal conservatives have long abhorred clearing the way for the government to borrow more money without a real plan to shrink the national deficit.

Ahead of the speaker vote, Jared Pincin, associate professor of economics at Cedarville University, said the outcome of the speaker’s race could signal trouble for Trump’s agenda.

“If Johnson gets reelected relatively quickly, that would signal to me that there is some agreement in the House of how they’re going to move forward. If it gets messy today, then there’s clearly disagreements that will spill over to these other things,” Pincin said.

So does Johnson’s election signal clear skies? Or is it a sign of more turbulence ahead? After all, it almost failed.

As the vote dragged on and it initially looked like Johnson might lose, I asked Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., if he was worried about Trump having to chase a pair of votes on every key measure.

“I would expect that we’re going to secure the border. Second, I think we’re going to fight prices, third we’re going to correct the Biden mistakes of where he has put this country on the world stage. That we have to wait an hour or two to make a speaker, no big deal. We will get through it,” LaLota said.