Johnson wins speaker’s gavel again on first vote in new Congress

House Speaker Mike Johnson held on and won the speakership again Friday after a pair of Republican defectors ultimately flipped their votes to support him.

Aided by the endorsement of President-elect Donald Trump, Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, won his first full term of Congress as speaker with 218 votes. Only one Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, voted against him.

All 215 Democrats voted for their leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York.

Mr. Johnson was in good spirits after the vote and said he is looking forward to getting to work on fleshing out Republicans’ campaign promises into legislation.

“We’ve got a big agenda,” he said. “We’re going to go do a big workshop [Saturday] with all the members and map out the strategy. So we’re excited.”

Mr. Johnson’s first round victory was not smooth, however, after Mr. Massie and Reps. Ralph Norman of South Carolina and Keith Self of Texas banded together to vote against him in favor of other GOP members — House Minority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota, Jim Jordan of Ohio and Byron Donalds of Florida.

But after back and forth with fellow members of the House Freedom Caucus, and a closed-door huddle with the speaker in a room adjacent to the House floor, Mr. Norman and Mr. Self ultimately switched their votes in favor of Mr. Johnson.

The delay created confusion over whether the first ballot had been closed, with some House officials saying a second round of balloting would begin shortly. In fact, the first ballot was held open for an unusually lengthy period while the closed-door discussions took place.

Mr. Self said he changed his mind during the side conversation with Mr. Johnson — during which Mr. Trump called in to participate — because a plan was hatched to involve rank-and-file members, including representatives of the Freedom Caucus, in negotiations over budget reconciliation legislation that will be used to advance much of the GOP agenda.

“We shored up the reconciliation team, because we know that this will be a heavy lift to get the Trump agenda across the line in the reconciliation package,” he said. 

No other deals were cut, he said.

After the vote, Mr. Johnson vowed to install Mr. Trump’s agenda quickly. 

“What we’re proposing now is just simply, what President Trump likes to say, is a return to common sense,” Mr. Johnson told the House. “I am very thankful, personally, that this body is filled with men and women who are committed to that change to return to common sense. We can do this together, we should. It is our responsibility to do so.” 

Mr. Trump congratulated Mr. Johnson on his victory “for receiving an unprecedented Vote of Confidence in Congress.” 

“Mike will be a Great Speaker, and our Country will be the beneficiary,” he said on Truth Social. “The People of America have waited four years for Common Sense, Strength, and Leadership. They’ll get it now, and America will be greater than ever before!”

Mr. Johnson’s victory in the new Congress quelled fears among Republicans of a protracted speaker fight, similar to the multi-day battle for the gavel under former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, that could have delayed the certification of Mr. Trump’s victory and stalled the brisk pace that the GOP set for implementing his agenda.

Mr. Johnson, with an assist from Mr. Trump working the phones to sway detractors, managed to win without cutting other deals with lawmakers who wanted to hold the gavel hostage to their demands.

Just before the vote, Mr. Johnson believed that he had “all the votes” he needed to win a majority of support for the gavel.

“I have made no deals with anyone,” Mr. Johnson said as he walked onto the House floor. “And I’m very proud to say that.”

Before the vote, Mr. Johnson did lay out a roadmap on X of three points that he would adhere to during the new session of Congress, a plan that appeared primed to win over holdouts that are particularly sensitive about the increasing federal deficit.

Those guardrails included creating a working group of “independent experts” to work with the incoming Department of Government Efficiency to implement spending reforms. That same working group would also be tasked with reviewing existing audits of federal agencies.

He will also request House committees to do “aggressive authorizations and appropriations reviews” to root out illegal practices to hold agencies accountable that have “weaponized government against the American people.”

His win does not guarantee a smooth road ahead, with detractors demanding changes to the way the House operates.

A group of holdouts that included Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Andy Harris of Maryland, Paul Gosar of Arizona and Michael Cloud of Texas withheld their support of Mr. Johnson until after every member had voted to send a message to the speaker.

Indeed, Mr. Roy said on X shortly after the gavel rang signaling the speaker’s victory that “everything we do needs to set the Congress up for success and to deliver the Trump agenda for the American people.”

“Speaker Johnson has not made that clear yet, so there are many members beyond the three who voted for someone else who have reservations,” he said.

In a memo released shortly after the vote concluded, 11 members of the House Freedom Caucus, including most of the holdouts, said they voted in favor of Mr. Johnson to ensure the “timely certification” on Monday of Mr. Trump’s victory.

The memo called on Mr. Johnson to make good on a series of their demands, including cutting spending, sealing the border and reversing a spate of Biden administration policies, among others, and signaled that Mr. Johnson’s position as speaker was not safe unless those demands were met.

“There is always room to negotiate on so-called ‘leadership’ positions under the rules; in the meantime, each one of our election certificates is still equal,” the memo read. “Personalities can be debated later, but right now there is zero room for error on the policies the American people demanded when they voted for President Trump — the ones necessary to save the country. We demand the House of Representatives deliver — quickly.”

Many of Mr. Johnson’s critics were frustrated he cut deals with Democrats during the last Congress for a variety of measures, including Ukraine aid and some spending deals. Those agreements were almost a given, considering the razor-thin majority Republicans had that continued to shrink throughout the last two years.

Republicans will again have a slim grip on power in the lower chamber that will temporarily shrink to a zero-vote margin for the bulk of Mr. Trump’s first 100 days, when Reps. Elise Stefanik of New York and Mike Waltz of Florida leave to take their respective posts in the Trump administration.

The first hurdle will be negotiations over impending budget reconciliation packages that will carry a large chunk of Mr. Trump’s agenda, and whether skeptical lawmakers trust the speaker to make good on a handshake agreement to tackle the debt limit. The proposal would increase the nation’s borrowing limit by $1.5 trillion, coupled with $2.5 trillion in spending cuts.