Who is Mike Johnson? The latest GOP House speaker nominee

Rep Mike Johnson has become the latest lawmaker to secure the GOP nomination for the next House speaker, following a disastrous three weeks in the lower chamber.

The Louisiana congressman was picked by his party on Tuesday night, just hours after the third nominee Tom Emmer abruptly pulled out.

Mr Johnson is now the fourth GOP nominee in just two weeks, coming after Mr Emmer, Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan.

With just 128 votes in a secret closed-door session, he – like the previous three nominees – still has a major uphill battle to secure the 217 votes needed to take the gavel.

Speaking to reporters after he secured the nomination, Mr Johnson brushed off the chaos as Republicans clamour to find a new speaker.

“Democracy is messy sometimes, but it is our system,” he said. “This House Republican majority is united.”

Who is Mike Johnson?

Louisiana Rep Mike Johnson was first elected to Congress in 2016.

For two years he was chair of the Republican Study Committee and in 2021 year became the vice chair of the House Republican Conference.

Mr Johnson is a member of the House Freedom Caucus and on the Committee of the Judiciary.

Prior to joining Congress, Mr Johnson may be remembered for proposing a controversial bill in Louisiana that could have allowed the state to withhold a bevy of state benefits from a person based on their views on the institution of marriage.

When announcing his bid, Mr Johnson laid out a seven-step plan on key commitments he believes are part of being speaker.

How has he become the latest GOP nominee?

Mr Johnson has become the fourth GOP nominee after Mr Emmer dropped out of the race.

Mr Emmer’s speaker bid lasted only four hours before he dropped out in the face of steadfast opposition from Donald Trump allies.

The former president attacked Mr Emmer as a “Globalist RINO” in a Truth Social post.

“I have many wonderful friends wanting to be Speaker of the House, and some are truly great Warriors. RINO Tom Emmer, who I do not know well, is not one of them. He never respected the Power of a Trump Endorsement, or the breadth and scope of MAGA—MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” he wrote.

“I believe he has now learned his lesson, because he is saying that he is Pro-Trump all the way, but who can ever be sure? Has he only changed because that’s what it takes to win?

“The Republican Party cannot take that chance, because that’s not where the America First Voters are. Voting for a Globalist RINO like Tom Emmer would be a tragic mistake!”

Mr Trump then later tried to claim credit for “killing” Mr Emmer’s bid, posting a link to an article by Politico, titled “‘I killed him’: How Trump torpedoed Tom Emmer’s speaker bid”.

“He’s done. It’s over. I killed him,” Mr Trump allegedly told an ally, per the report.

The House of Representatives has now been without a speaker for three weeks since Kevin McCarthy was ousted by a rebel faction led by Maga Republican Matt Gaetz.

What about the 2020 question?

Simply put, Mike Johnson was Donald Trump’s man on Capitol Hill — until he wasn’t.

Then a second-term congressman, he led the effort to garner signatures from his fellow House Republicans for a Texas lawsuit seeking to invalidate the election results in several swing states based on the false claims of voter fraud alleged by the Trump campaign after Mr Trump’s defeat to Joe Biden. The lawsuit died before being heard by the Supreme Court, as the justices ruled that Texas had no standing to interfere in the election processes of other states.

But Mr Johnson also called for Mr Trump to concede once his legal options were exhausted — a key choice that may endear him to those Republicans who have refused to play along with the lies told by the former president about the 2020 election. As a result, the bridge between the two factions in the House GOP may be found through Mr Johnson.

In a discussion with Robert Doar of the American Enterprise Institute in December of 2020, he urged Mr Trump to do just that, though only after attempting every legal method to change the results of the election or require audits of the vote. Fighting voter fraud, he said at the time, was important even “if this current election is not capable of being overturned now,” and noted that “it’s probably not”.

“That’s the reality,” he added.

Mr Doar then interrupted him.

“He has exhausted his legal remedies, and he’s not winning,” said the AEI president, who then asked if Mr Trump should concede the election — which the president was adamantly refusing to do.

“He has to do that,” Mr Johnson responded. “There’s no question about that.”