Mike Johnson may have won the speaker struggle – but his BIGGEST challenges lie ahead: Republican facing fights on preventing a shutdown, foreign aid, kicking out George Santos – and survival

After securing the gavel and ending the three-week deadlock in the House of Representatives, new Speaker Mike Johnson faces a long list of hurdles.

The 51-year-old will have to organize a free-wheeling Republican conference hostile to leadership figures. He was the fourth nominee in three weeks — chosen after three others won a majority in the conference but failed to win the Republican votes needed to put the gavel on the floor.

DailyMail.com provides an overview of the key challenges facing new Speaker Johnson.

Small staff and limited fundraising experience

The Louisiana Republican and former vice chairman of the GOP conference has never chaired a committee and works with a relatively small staff. Johnson has also only been in Congress since 2016 – a relatively short time compared to previous speakers.

He will be responsible for overcoming deep divisions among the membership and will be forced to work closely with two people who tried to get the top job before him: Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Whip Tom Emmer.

Speakers are typically responsible for securing donations to maintain and expand the majority in the House of Representatives. Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy was a prolific fundraiser, like Nancy Pelosi before him.

But Johnson isn’t nearly as connected to lobbyists in Washington, having raised just $540,000 in all of 2023. That’s pennies on the dollar compared to McCarthy’s take of $15.3 from July to September alone this year.

Motion to remove the threat looms

Johnson will also have to grapple with whether to change the rule that made McCarthy’s swift ouster possible.

To accommodate his right-wing opponents in January, during his tumultuous speaker’s election, McCarthy agreed to a single-member “motion to leave.” That means only one member can call a vote in the House of Representatives to remove the head of the Republicans.

Through that line, Rep. Matt Gaetz introduced the motion that impeached McCarthy earlier this month, along with seven other Republicans and all Democrats.

The rule forced McCarthy to conduct a balancing act between appeasing his right-wing opponents and working with the Democratic-led Senate.

That will be a tall order for Johnson in next month’s spending battle, when the continuing resolution (CR) that prompted McCarthy’s resignation is due to expire.

But members of the Freedom Caucus who oppose McCarthy have indicated they will give Johnson more leeway.

“I’m proud to support our new speaker Mike Johnson! I’m going to do everything I can to make him successful,” Gaetz wrote on X.

The government shutdown is fast approaching

At the eleventh hour before a September 30 deadline, McCarthy floored a “clean” CR that extended government funding at the 2023 level set under Pelosi by six weeks.

That gave the House of Representatives more time to pass 12 single-issue spending bills to fund each government agency. But even these party-line bills have proven controversial among the divided conference, and at some point Johnson will have to work with the Democratic-led Senate to pass negotiated spending bills.

Johnson has proposed placing another CR in the House of Representatives to extend government funding until January 15 or April 15 so that the Senate “cannot overwhelm the House with a Christmas omnibus.”

Johnson opposed the continuing resolution that McCarthy brought up weeks ago.

Johnson’s conservative voting record raised questions about how well he will be able to negotiate with the Democratic Senate and White House.

Rep. Dusty Johnson, a pragmatic conservative from South Dakota, told reporters that Johnson places great importance on civility.

He said when he got to the office, “Mike Johnson came to my office, sat down with me as a new member and talked to me about how important civility was here, how even when we disagree with our colleagues on the other side of the border, the aisle, we have to try to do it as people of good faith and good intentions with decency.”

“That’s not something that many members would spend time in these rooms preaching the importance of civility, but I bring that up because that’s who Mike Johnson is in his heart.”

Aid debacle for Ukraine

Johnson has already pushed through a resolution to support Israel, which passed with overwhelming support, and now he will have to grapple with whether to push through more Israeli aid amid the war with Hamas and Ukraine’s help for its war with Russia.

Asked Tuesday whether he supports aid to Ukraine, Johnson told reporters: “We all do. We are going to impose conditions on this. We’re working through it. We will provide you with more details.”

The Senate is considering a White House request for a package on Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and border security.

George Santos’ legal troubles

He will also face the question of how to handle a resolution to expel embattled Rep. George Santos.

New York Republicans have said they will introduce a privileged resolution next week, setting up a vote that would have to pass a two-thirds threshold within two legislative days.

Johnson has refused to say whether he supports the effort to deport Santos. If they did, Republicans would lose another seat in their four-seat majority.

Anti-Israel rhetoric from Democrats

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has also introduced a resolution to censure “Squad” Rep. Rashida Tlaib, claiming she incited an “insurrection” when she spoke at a pro-Palestinian protest that infiltrated the Capitol campus.

Greene brought up the legislation by also filing it as a privileged resolution.

Johnson has expressed support for Israel, but it remains to be seen whether he will support Greene’s resolution.

The new chairman’s first course of action was to introduce a resolution in support of Israel and condemning the Hamas terrorist attacks on October 7.

Democrats are attacking his denial of the 2020 election results and gay rights

Democrats are already looking at Johnson’s conservative record and his involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

Johnson led an amicus brief signed by more than 100 Republicans in a Texas lawsuit seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Asked about his previous attempts to overturn the results Tuesday night, he snorted and told a reporter, “next question.”

Representative Madeleine Dean told DailyMail.com that a colleague told her the only difference between Johnson and Ohio roaster Jim Jordan is that “one is wearing a jacket.”

Dean predicted Johnson would face the same “dodgy” allegations leveled against Kevin McCarthy.

‘He is not someone who is based on the truth, he talks very quickly. He is obviously smart, but he is not based on the facts and the truth,” she said.

The deeply religious Johnson also opposed gay rights for years.

As an attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), a Christian advocacy group, he warned in 2003 that the Supreme Court’s striking down of laws criminalizing homosexual activity was contrary to “American values.”

“There is clearly no ‘right to sodomy’ in the Constitution,” Johnson wrote in a 2003 column in the U.S. Constitution. Shreveport Times. ‘And the right to ‘privacy of the home’ has never brought all activities with the home beyond the boundaries of criminal law.’

He was the lead author of the 2022 federal so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill that bans federal money from “developing, implementing, facilitating, or financing any sexually oriented program, event or literature.” for children under 10 years old.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had a stern warning for Johnson:

“If Speaker Johnson repeats Speaker McCarthy’s mistakes, if he tumbles down the MAGA road, it will be inevitable that the House will be mired in even more chaos very soon,” he said in a speech Thursday. “If Speaker Johnson lives up to the label Congressman Gaetz has given him, MAGA Mike, he will fail like previous Speakers have.”