Mike Johnson wins election for Speaker of the House of Representatives after emerging as Trump-backed ‘GOP unity candidate’ after 22 days of unrest

After 22 farcical days, thirteen failed candidates, four nominees and four primary votes, Republicans have finally chosen a Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Louisiana’s Mike Johnson has been picked to take the gavel in a vote that ended the three-week House GOP circus sparked by the impeachment of Kevin McCarthy.

Johnson, 51, won all the Republican votes and took the top spot after a battle dominated by backstabbing, death threats, side deals, Donald Trump and Matt Gaetz.

Johnson, who served as vice chairman of the House GOP Conference, needed at least 215 of the 220 Republicans present to vote for him, but instead received unanimous approval from his party. All 209 Democrats present voted for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Johnson was the fourth Republican candidate for the top position in three weeks, and the first to break the Republican power struggle. He was the first Republican speaker to receive every vote in his party since John Boehner in 2011.

His victory will now allow the House of Representatives to return to regular business, which is desperately needed with less than a month until a possible government shutdown and as the war between Israel and Hamas intensifies.

The House of Representatives will return to legislative business, including a resolution in support of Israel and a contentious spending battle.

Johnson was nominated Tuesday night — just hours after Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., won an internal Republican vote but dropped out after 26 Republicans signaled they would not vote for him in the House of Representatives.

Majority Leader Steve Scalise, another Louisianan, was the Republican Party’s first nominee after Kevin McCarthy was ousted more than three weeks ago in a historic motion to halt the vote.

But he quit after about 24 hours when he realized there were stragglers who couldn’t be swayed in his favor – those who felt he was too “establishment.”

Then-Republican Jim Jordan of Ohio, chairman of the powerful Judiciary Committee, won the nomination after Scalise but failed to sway about two dozen moderates in his favor during three failed votes.

Johnson and Jordan have very similar voting records.

Both voted against certifying the 2020 election, against the continuing resolution that will keep the government funded until November 17, against the $300 million in aid to Ukraine and against McCarthy and Biden’s debt ceiling.

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

As part of his “fired up” brand, Jordan is infamous on Capitol Hill for ditching his suit jacket even when conducting business as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

Some Republican appropriators and defense hawks had opposed Jordan because they believed he could cut defense spending.

“Jim Jordan has said everything is at stake when it comes to budget cuts, including defense,” an aide to a moderate member who opposed Jordan told DailyMail.com. “Johnson hasn’t gone that far yet.”

Jeffries sounded enthusiastic about Johnson’s nomination: “The twice-impeached former president directed House Republicans to stop Tom Emmer and elevate an election denier. Is anyone surprised they complied?”

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.”

Meanwhile, Democrats seized on his involvement in 2020 election fraud claims.

“(Johnson) has distinguished himself as one of the leading opponents of our democratic institutions and our free and fair elections,” Rep. Adam Schiff, R-California, told reporters.

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., one of eight who voted to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, told DailyMail.com, “I believe Johnson will be trustworthy, will be more honest, will be more honest.”

But Democrat 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.

Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., said he didn’t expect major leadership or policy differences between Johnson and McCarthy, but Johnson was gaining confidence from the party’s right wing.

“Some of my friends in the Freedom Caucus have told me that they expect to offer Mike Johnson more mercy than Kevin McCarthy. I think this will give him a little more space to deal with the next three, two months,” he said, referring to the coming battle over spending to get the government funded.

“I believe they trust Mike Johnson in a way that they didn’t trust Kevin McCarthy.”

McCarthy was impeached after introducing a “clean” continuing resolution, a bill to extend government funding for six weeks at 2023 levels, while the House needed more time to pass 12 single-issue spending bills in the House of Representatives approve.

The South Dakota Republican predicted that despite his conservative voting record, Johnson could work across the aisle to negotiate spending deals.

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.”