Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is wooing his sharpest critics within the Home GOP forward of his official election for Speaker on the Home flooring, working to get rid of opposition and safe the strongest management mandate attainable in a razor-thin majority.
Within the newest improvement, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) — one of many leaders of an unsuccessful transfer to oust Johnson earlier this 12 months — is not ruling out supporting Johnson for Speaker. The 2 chatted over the Thanksgiving break, and have been having conversations that seem like leaving a constructive impression on Massie.
“We’ve been talking,” Massie advised The Hill when requested if he’s nonetheless against Johnson. “We talked last week.”
Massie cautioned that he’s “not to the support levels yet.” However his openness to voting for Johnson is a serious improvement, given his prior opposition. Earlier this 12 months, Massie had mentioned he wouldn’t vote for Johnson “come hell or high water.”
The Kentucky Republican’s softening on Johnson comes because the Speaker has additionally secured the backing of his most vocal former critic, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).
Greene, the principle chief of the failed movement to vacate earlier this 12 months, confirmed on Wednesday that she’s going to vote for Johnson to be Speaker within the Jan. 3 flooring vote.
“Nobody’s running against him,” Greene advised The Hill.
Greene had first signaled openness to supporting Johnson after the November election resulted in a win for President-elect Trump and Republicans in each chambers of Congress.
After a “productive” personal assembly between the 2 final month, which The Hill first reported, Greene is now set to chair a Delivering on Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) subcommittee, to enrich the Trump administration DOGE fee headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Johnson already received renomination for Speaker final month in a voice vote by Home Republicans, with no member vocalizing opposition. The unanimous vote got here after he struck a deal with hardline conservatives and anti-chaos Republicans on guidelines modifications — which included elevating the edge to power a vote on ousting the Speaker. That induced hardliners to desert a plan to power a recorded vote to show opposition to Johnson.
However regardless of the unanimous vote, questions remained about whether or not Johnson might seamlessly win election on the Home flooring, given the handful of detractors who left open the opportunity of opposing him on the Home flooring.
Republicans are set to have one of many slimmest Home majorities in historical past. On Jan. 3, when there will likely be 219 Republicans and 215 Democrats — with one emptiness for former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-Fla.) seat — Johnson would solely be capable to afford to lose help from one Home Republican and nonetheless win the Speakership, assuming each member is current and voting for a selected candidate. All Democrats are anticipated to vote for Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).
There’s little urge for food amongst Republicans to point out any fractures because the social gathering is about to take trifecta management of presidency, in a boon for Johnson. Trump has additionally publicly supported the Speaker.
His place on extra Ukraine funding might additionally assist dissuade Republican defections, although he was criticized by the “America First” crowd for serving to usher although help to Ukraine earlier this 12 months. Johnson on Wednesday mentioned that he’ll oppose a request from President Biden for a further $24 billion in help to Ukraine.
Nonetheless, there may be the danger of hardline Republicans like Massie – who has a libertarian streak and regularly votes in opposition to his social gathering – might solid protest votes that complicate or block Johnson’s path.
“I think there’s so much stuff up in the air, nobody’s going to know ‘till January 3,” Massie mentioned.
The Speaker some funding hurdles to navigate earlier than the top of the 12 months that danger angering hardline conservatives. Authorities funding runs out on Dec. 20, and Johnson is engaged on a deal to proceed funding till March.
Johnson is having to maintain up the outreach. Earlier this week, he had a dialogue with members of the Home Freedom Caucus, the hardline conservative group, about catastrophe help funding to handle injury from hurricanes Helene and Milton.
“The House has to go through really line by line, and assess those requests and make sure that they all are actually tied to disaster and not superfluous items and issues that are included. That’s what the discussion with Freedom Caucus was about,” Johnson mentioned Wednesday.
The Freedom Caucus, nonetheless, got here out with a public assertion later that day opposing any “unpaid” catastrophe aid, growing the probability that Johnson must depend on Democratic votes to push by means of and invoice with the catastrophe aid.
Massie and Greene usually are not the one Johnson antagonists who’ve softened, although.
Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), who was one the ten Republicans who joined Greene in voting in opposition to a movement to desk her movement to vacate this 12 months and has additionally criticized Johnson, advised The Hill that he thinks he’ll help the Speaker on the Home flooring.
“I think as long as there’s no unforced errors, we should be smooth sailing,” Davidson mentioned.
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), one other a kind of 10, mentioned Thursday that he would vote for Johnson for Speaker “if the vote were today,” however added that folks “are curious how he’s going to handle the next two weeks” and points with authorities funding.
Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio), one other previous public critic of Johnson, mentioned he’ll vote for the Speaker, too.
“I’m with the majority of the majority,” Miller mentioned, including: “No one’s running against him.”
The once-routine election of the Home Speaker on the opening day of the brand new Congress grew to become a drawn-out saga in January 2023, when 20 Republicans withheld help for former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for 5 days. It was the primary time in a century {that a} Speaker vote took a number of ballots. And later within the 12 months, eight Republicans joined with Democrats to power McCarthy out, with the social gathering finally deciding on Johnson to switch him three weeks later.
A part of the conservative calls for from that January 2023 combat consisted of illustration for hardliners on key committees, such because the Home Guidelines Committee. That resulted in Massie getting a spot on that panel, together with Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Ralph Norman (R-S.C.).
However Massie indicated that he’s not essentially seeking to keep on the Guidelines panel, saying he was stretched skinny with different committee work.
“I had too many credit hours last semester and I missed the drop date,” Massie joked.Johnson woos his sharpest critics in preparation for Speaker vote
