Who Exactly is Speaker Mike Johnson?
At the Races for Speaker
When all hope was lost the Republican conference had one trick up their sleeves. Nominate someone that not even their own party’s Senators have heard of before.
Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) may well be the only man who could’ve united the GOP conference and finally brought an end this Speakership debacle, but does anyone outside of Washington know who he is? The answer is probably not, so I have taken it upon myself to find out everything I can about the relatively inexperienced, Louisianan Congressman to answer why he was the GOP’s golden ticket to ending over three weeks without a Speaker.
Guided by a fundamental Christian philosophy and an obsession with culture war issues, in particular those against same sex couples, I will break down how the dark horse candidate rose to the rank of Speaker in just two days. From a constitutional lawyer, and a one termer in the Louisiana House, to vice chair of the House Republican Conference and to where he is now. Strap in as we explore the career and political clout of the last hope Republicans had to elect a Speaker.
Constitutional Conservative Clout
“Your race, creed, and sex are what you are, while homosexuality and cross-dressing are things you do.” This is a direct quote from an editorial piece authored by the freshly elected Speaker in 2005.
Before his time in politics, Mike Johnson was a constitutional lawyer explicitly leaning in favour of conservative interpretations of the law. In his own words, he has defended in law, “the right to life, religious liberty, free speech, the Second Amendment and free market principles.” This is hardly a moderate track record, and he has never represented himself as anything bar a staunch conservative either, claiming the title of the “intellectual arsenal,” of conservatism. Further, in contrast with his assertion that he litigates in favour of free speech, he continued to write in opposition to same-sex rights and decried them as “bizarre options,” in the same 2005 op-ed referenced above.
As you can imagine, a big issue for Mike Johnson is same sex marriage, and he has written extensively in opposition to it since Obergefell v Hodges in 2017. He concurred with Justice Clarence Thomas that the ruling would have, “potentially ruinous consequences for religious liberty,” and this crusade has transitioned from his work as a constitutional lawyer into his time in the House. In the same article, he also wrote that same sex marriage is a sign of how modern Western culture is leading to a collapse of religious liberties. One can expect a Johnson Speakership to focus harshly on culture war and homophobic legislation.
Legislative Weapon
Legislative weapon is the most fitting term I feel applies to Johnson, as he is likely the first major candidate for Speaker this month who has strong legislative coattails - despite the fact he was first elected to congress in 2016.
In 2017, Johnson gained his first glimpse of the spotlight as the author of the Protecting Against Child Exploitation Act, a bill which the Louisianan claimed would shut a loophole in pornography laws which allowed children to be exploited. This bill handily passed the House 368-51 but never made it to a vote in the Senate, in part due to a campaign asserting that this was a bill centred on a moral outrage against sexting. It is these moral outrages that Johnson would gain notoriety for.
Returning to his home state of Louisiana, Johnson would, despite being a federal politician, help the then Attorney General and now Governor-elect Jeff Landry to draft a bill designed to help facilitate students practicing their faith on school campuses. A noble pursuit on paper, but under the surface it was opposed by Libertarian and atheist groups, who saw the bill as an infringement against the rights of atheist and children of other religious denominations who would have to sit through Christian Prayer in their schools.
More recently there has been further evidence supplied that moral outrages are Johnson’s pet issue, as in 2022 he sponsored the Stop the Sexualization of Children Act - which prompted protests across the United States. This bill was conveniently timed to coincide with Florida passing their “Don’t Say Gay,” Bill, and Johnson was seen as carrying the culture war battle against LGBTQ Americans to the federal level. Despite causing national outrage, this type of action secured his position in the good books of many on the Republican party’s right flank, likely galvanising their support for him since Rep. Emmer’s (R-MN) support of gay rights is what led to him being possibly the shortest serving Speaker-designate of all time.
Election Engineering
In the aftermath of the 2020 election, now-Speaker Johnson flexed his legal muscle and held a key role in gathering signatures from Congressional Republicans in favour of the Texas amicus briefing to throw out the electors from four swing states. On January 6th, Johnson also passed around talking points for his Republican colleagues to use in order to help conservatives in their plight to overturn the legitimate result of the 2020 election. Johnson also happens to be one of Trump’s favourite congressmen, and was an acolyte in espousing myths and rumours following the former President’s loss in 2020.
Despite how central Johnson’s faith is to him both personally and legislatively, he left a church service in November 2020 to take a call from Trump where he was encouraged to keep fighting the election result. The thorned crown of contesting the 2020 election results was likely gifted to Johnson as a thanks for his work on Trump’s impeachment team. It is these high ranking legal honours from the former President which were tantamount to Johnson’s success in winning over the right flank of the party and being able to emerge from the fray even if the general population had never heard of him before today.
All this is to say that the new Speaker likes to flex his legal muscle to advance conservative causes, and that the biggest conservative cause today seems to be how to rig or overturn elections. While abhorrent in nature, his legal crusades against abortion and same sex marriage were at least principled, and based on his fundamental Christian beliefs, but the Bible says nothing about fake electors, petitions against legitimate election results and amicus briefings in swing states.
No Money, Big Problems
Despite being crowned as Speaker, Mike Johnson has a severe weakness which none of his other rivals were really questioned on - fundraising. In last year’s midterm cycle, Kevin McCarthy raked in over $40 million for Congressional Republicans up and down the country, an absolutely monumental amount of cash which may well have won the house for Republicans thanks to some incredibly close margins in a number of swing seats.
Mike Johnson has nothing near these credentials, something which in normal times would be seen as a dealbreaker by at least some Republicans, but desperate times have clearly gotten the better of them. In the last midterm cycle, Johnson raised a grand total of $550k, or less than 1% of what McCarthy brought in for the same period. In contrast with Speaker-designates past, Majority Leader Scalise (R-LA) raised $18 million in the same period, Rep. Jordan (R-OH) raised $14 million, and Majority Whip Emmer (R-MN) raised almost $5 million.
While McCarthy’s edge can be explained by him being the Speaker in waiting and having the advantage of leading House Republicans in a favourable cycle, the other three candidates didn’t, yet they still massively outran Johnson. Simply put, those numbers are dismal for a man who was vice chair of the House GOP Conference and a key lawyer for conservatives and Trump in particular.
Small Fish in a Big Pond
Another area where I feel that Johnson is shooting in the dark is experience. He has no experience in House leadership, a tiny office space in the Capitol, no security detail to speak of and his highest achievement in the House was previously serving as Chair of the Republican Study Committee. His way of life is about to fundamentally change and he will be thrust into the spotlight with little high ranking legislative experience, no fundraising coattails, and an impending Government shutdown within the next three weeks unless he can pass a litany of spending bills - and his current solution to this problem is yet another continuing resolution.
Spending is Johnson’s Achilles heel. Passing a continuing resolution to stop the Federal Government from imploding is what took Kevin McCarthy down and he had nine months to try and solve that problem. Johnson has less than three weeks. Early indicators suggest that the Freedom Caucus types and the eight rebels who brought McCarthy down are more sympathetic to Johnson - hardly a surprise given his big C conservative record, but nothing indicates that any of the Freedom Caucus’ red lines have suddenly evaporated.
Compounding Johnson’s problems is that the same right wing ideology which gained him the Speaker’s gavel has made him toxic to Democrats in the House. In a fiery speech today after Johnson’s election as Speaker, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) hammered home the hard lines which Democrats will never cross - including protecting LGBTQ Americans, women’s right to choose, and elderly Americans. This scope will likely also include aid to Ukraine (a non-starter for some isolationists in the GOP conference), and aid to Israel - although that is less controversial. House Republicans have a tendency to attempt to shoehorn parts of their social agenda into spending bills, and neither House Democrats nor the Democrat controlled Senate will allow any measure from Johnson which impugns on issues like LGBTQ rights, abortion or social security. This puts extra pressure on the new Speaker to keep his raucous caucus under control.
Summing Up
A seemingly apt way to sum up a character profile of one of the most fundamentally religious, homophobic Speakers of the modern era is with one of the most bizarre photos I’ve seen of a United States Speaker. It was already clear that this level of religious fanaticism was bread and butter to his constituents, but it’s less obvious that this will translate to the national stage. His brand of far right politics will be tested and contrasted with McCarthy’s milquetoast conservatism, and will likely become a rallying cry for liberals and progressives around the nation.
Time will tell if the Freedom Caucus and other right wing agents’ gambit of causing chaos in the House until a suitably conservative candidate appeared pays off, but my guess is that Speaker Johnson will be anathema to a large section of American society.
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Just what the so-called moderate Republicans needed: a red meat MAGA maggot with better table manners.
Thank you for all your research. I’m going to share this information as much as possible. It’s better to know what we’re up against.