Speaker Johnson wins unanimous support from GOP for another term as top House Republican

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday won a unanimous closed-door vote for his first, full term as Speaker despite rumblings of a possible rebellion against him, after he received a full-throated endorsement from President-elect Donald Trump.

But his position atop the House GOP is not completely finalized, with hard-line conservatives demanding concessions to House rule changes. 

A deal between House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris of Maryland and more moderate Main Street Caucus Chair Dusty Johnson of South Dakota was reached to quell a rebellion against the speaker, for now, that revolved around key issues for both sides. One was removing retaliatory rule proposals against members that conservatives balked at; the other was increasing the threshold to trigger a motion to vacate to nine lawmakers instead of one. 

“I’m really grateful for their time and their expertise and their investments in making all this work very well today for everybody,” Mr. Johnson said. 

Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, a member of the Freedom Caucus who said earlier in the day that lawmakers were not yet united behind the speaker, believed the deal “had some success.” But he emphasized that there was still much to do as Congress entered into a new session next year. 

“What are we gonna do right out of the gate?” Mr. Roy said. “And the more we can get agreement on that, the more we’ll all be hunky dory on Jan. 3.”

Mr. Johnson first became speaker after a grueling, nearly month-long search to find a replacement for Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who was ousted by a small cohort of conservatives last October.

At the time, Republicans were unified in their support of him. In the year since, conservatives have grown dissatisfied with his handling of government funding and Ukraine aid.

But his work to keep the GOP’s majority in the House helped cement him as speaker with the majority of the conference.

Keeping the majority, coupled with Mr. Trump’s endorsement earlier in the day during the House GOP’s candidate forum for a variety of leadership positions, appeared to win over any possible defectors against him.

Prior to Mr. Trump’s endorsement, hard-line conservatives from the Freedom Caucus mulled whether to pit a last-minute challenger against him, but that play seemed to quickly melt away Wednesday morning.

Mr. Johnson’s term as Speaker will become official on Jan. 3, when Republicans elect him on the House floor to kick off the 119th Congress, providing that the GOP captures at least 218 seats as expected. A few races are yet to be called.

House Republicans weighed in on eight leadership posts in all, with many of the races featuring lawmakers who already held their respective positions. 

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota, House Republican Vice Chair Blake Moore of Utah and National Republican Congressional Committee chair Richard Hudson of North Carolina were all unopposed in their bids, and each claimed unanimous victories. 

Rep. Lisa McClain of Michigan bested Rep. Kat Cammack of Florida 146 to 67 in the race to replace outgoing House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik of New York, who was tapped by Mr. Trump to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. 

In an upset, Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma won the Republican Policy Committee chair over Rep. Gary Palmer of Alabama, who has served in the position since 2019, 111 to 91. Mr. Hern is coming off of a stint as the chair of the House GOP’s largest caucus, the Republican Study Committee. 

Rep. Erin Houchin of Indiana won in a three-way race against Rep. Mark Alford of Missouri and Rep. Mary Miller-Meeks for Republican Conference Secretary.