U.S. President-elect Donald Trump shakes hands with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) during a meeting with House Republicans on Capitol Hill in Washington, November 13, 2024.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
The House of Representatives began voting for the next speaker on Friday after outgoing Speaker Mike Johnson was nominated by Republican and Democratic nominee Rep. Hakeem Jeffries.
Earlier on Friday, the president-elect Donald Trump I called my friend again Republicans elect Johnson as speaker.
Trump's social media support came alongside Johnson – whose current term is loudspeaker expired at 11 a.m. EST – faces a potentially very tight vote in the House where the GOP holds an extremely slim majority.
With all 434 House members showing up for the vote, Johnson will need almost every Republican to vote for him to become speaker.
“Good luck today to Speaker Mike Johnson, a great man of great ability who is very close to getting 100% approval,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
“Mike's victory today will be a major victory for the Republican Party and another confirmation of our most important presidential election in 129 years!” Trump wrote. “REALLY GREAT CONFIRMATION. MAGA!”
Johnson, who represents a district in Louisiana, needs a majority of House members to become speaker of the 119th Congress.
Republicans have 219 seats in the new Congress. Democrats hold 215 seats.
Such a narrow split means that if all House members are present and all Democrats vote for New Yorker Jeffries, Johnson will need at least 218 Republican votes to be elected speaker.
If two or more Republicans decide to vote for someone else, Johnson's overall approval rating will drop below 218 and he will not be selected as speaker on that ballot.
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky has already said he has no plans to support Johnson, leaving no margin if Massie follows through on his commitment.
Johnson was first elected speaker on Oct. 25, 2023, three weeks after then-Republican. Kevin McCarthy of California was ousted from that seat when a handful of Republicans joined all Democrats to vote for his removal.
Johnson was the fourth candidate considered to replace McCarthy.
McCarthy himself had only been speaker for nine months when he was ousted – he was first elected speaker in January 2023 after four days of voting and 15 ballots.
This is developing news. Check for updates.