House Republicans are set to vote on their next speaker on Friday, but with less than a day to go, it remains unclear whether Speaker Mike Johnson will have the necessary votes.
The new Congress will convene Friday after lawmakers spent Thursday traveling back to Washington from the holiday break.
But as of Thursday afternoon, Speaker Johnson was still working to win over GOP lawmakers to support his leadership bid even with the backing of President-elect Donald Trump.
With such a small GOP majority in the House, Johnson can only afford one Republican to vote against him in his conference and still be reelected speaker.
But he vowed Thursday they are going to ‘get this done’ and suggested it could even happen on the first round of voting.
His expressed confidence comes after Trump issued his own stark warning to Republican lawmakers considering a vote against Johnson.
Lawmakers will vote on a speaker Friday. Speaker Mike Johnson has vowed to get it down, but it remains unclear whether he has the votes to remain in the leadership role amid GOP criticism heading into the new year
The 78-year-old president-elect said on New Year’s Eve that he believes Johnson will get enough votes from Republicans after he endorsed the speaker on Monday.
‘I think we’re going to have a great time in Washington, and I think we’re going to get great support,’ Trump claimed.
The president-elect warned that Johnson is the one who can ‘win right now’ and argued ‘people like him.’
During his remarks, Trump said there are others who he said would be good too, but he pointed out that they have ’30 to 40 people who don’t like them.’
But Republicans have faced chaos electing their leadership in recent years as members have used their vote in an attempt to extract promises with such a small majority.
In January 2023, voting went 15 ballots before GOP lawmakers elected Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
He was ousted that October without a clear replacement, and multiple candidates came forward before Johnson emerged from relative obscurity as someone who could get the necessary support.
President-elect Trump warned that Speaker Mike Johnson is the only one who could win enough votes to be elected speaker by Republicans ahead of the Friday vote in the House
President-elect Donald Trump with Speaker Mike Johnson at the Army-Navy football game on December 14. After weeks of silence, Trump endorsed Johnson to remain speaker on Monday
But he has faced an avalanche of criticism in the more than a year he has been in the role.
Congressman Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) said he would not vote for Johnson despite Trump’s backing.
Roughly a dozen other Republicans have signaled they remain undecided heading into Friday’s vote.
Congressman Chip Roy (R-Texas) said Johnson was a good friend, but he also said on Thursday that he remained undecided and criticized the speaker for his handling of the spending deal to avoid a government shutdown last month.
Roy said he did not believe Johnson had the votes, but he also did not have a clear alternative, simply suggesting there are a ‘lot of great members.’ He said he would have to see if Johnson could deliver on the agenda.
But heading into the final push to shore up support Johnson warned his conference ‘cannot afford any palace drama here.’
‘We have got to get the Congress started, which begins tomorrow. And we have to get immediately to work,’ he said on Fox News.
Trump with Johnson as he meets with the House GOP conference in Washington just after winning the election in November
Trump threw his full support behind Johnson to continue as speaker on Monday in a social media post. He called him a ‘good, hard working, religious man.’
‘He will do the right thing, and we will continue to WIN. Mike has my Complete & Total Endorsement. MAGA!!!’ Trump said.
It came amid fallout over the past few weeks about how Johnson handled negotiating a spending deal heading into the holiday break.
Last month, Johnson reached a deal with Democrats to avert the government shutdown following a last-minute scramble in which two other deals fell through.
During the process, Trump and billionaire Elon Musk helped tank a more than 1,500-page bipartisan spending deal Johnson had negotiated.
He quickly was replaced at the last minute with a much-slimmer Republican bill backed by Trump, but that bill also went down in flames with the help of some conservative Republicans.
In the end, 38 Republicans bucked Trump’s support and voted with Democrats against it.
A third agreement, which was slimmed down but did not include some of what Trump demanded was finally passed at the 11th hour with Democrats’ help.
