WASHINGTON — New Speaker Mike Johnson leads the Republicans in the House of Representatives with a majority in name only.
Unable to unite his fractious right flank and lead one of the smallest House majorities in history, Johnson is forced to rely on Democrats for the basics of governing, including the latest bill to create a prevent federal shutdown.
As he approaches his first 100 days on the job, Johnson faces tough choices. He can try to push conservatives, who push to the right in endless hours of meetings behind closed doors, to work together as a team. Or he can continue to ask Democrats for a bipartisan coalition to pass compromise legislation.
So far, rather than the chairman of a dysfunctional Republican majority, Johnson, R-La., has shown he is willing to put together a rare, large supermajority of Democrats and Republicans to get things done with Democratic President Joe Biden.
And that supermajority is exactly what some in Congress want, but others fear is coming.
“Everyone understands the reality of where we are today,” Johnson said at a weekly news conference.
“Republicans in the House of Representatives have the second-smallest majority in history,” he said. “We’re not going to get everything we want. But we remain committed to our core conservative principles.”
Johnson is about as conservative as he gets in Washington. His is a movement conservative, steeped in Christian beliefs, who has worked from Louisiana into the trenches of far-right social policy, especially against abortion, gay rights and other issues.
Elected in 2016, Johnson has joined Donald Trump in winning the White House that year, and Johnson led a major legal challenge to Trump in 2020 in an effort to overturn Biden’s election.
For now, the far-right forces that ousted Johnson’s predecessor, former Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, from the speaker’s office are allowing a grace period. They are frustrated by Johnson’s unwillingness to take dramatic action, such as a government shutdown, to achieve their priorities. But they are encouraged that at least Johnson is going with them.
But hardline Republicans are watching and waiting – any lawmaker can make a motion to impeach the chairman – especially as Johnson faces the challenges ahead on government spending, US border security and wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
“It is a loss for the American people to join hands with Democrats to form a governing coalition,” said Virginia Rep. Bob Good, the newly elected chairman of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, after last week’s vote to keep the government running.
Good complained that passage of the short-term spending bill, which Biden signed into law before Friday’s midnight deadline, was “a failure.”
Johnson will face another shutdown threat on March 1, when some of the temporary funding runs out again.
More immediately, Johnson Republicans and the House of Representatives are eyeing warily negotiations in the Senate on an immigration and border security package aimed at stemming the record flow of migrants and speeding deportations of some who have already entered the United States illegally entered.
Biden sees the emerging border deal as part of his broader $110 billion national security package, which has become urgent as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s forces need to replenish their weapons in their fight against the Russian invasion.
But such a deal that trades border policy for aid to Ukraine could be politically devastating for Johnson, whose Republicans, who join Trump, want an even tougher line on migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border and a more isolationist approach to the US foreign policy rejecting aid to Ukraine.
Biden hosted congressional leaders at the White House last week and surrounded the new speaker with prominent and influential voices, including the chairmen of the national security committees, to convince Johnson of the weight of the challenges ahead.
It placed the speaker at a central seat of American power.
The top Democrat on the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, Rep. Adam Smith of Washington state, spoke at one point during the White House meeting. He threw a pitch to Johnson.
“The argument I made to him was, ‘You know, the border isn’t going to be ‘solved,’” Smith recalled.
Smith told Johnson there is no “magic piece of legislation” that will suddenly stop the countless numbers of migrants flowing north.
“But we can make it better,” Smith said.
“So make it better,” Smith continued. “And I said, ‘You know, politically, you’re still going to be in a position to bash the Democrats on the border. That’s not going away.’”
Smith added: “So why don’t you do something good for the border, do something good for Ukraine, and you still have your politics. And it is a victory, a victory.”
And Johnson’s response?
“He didn’t say anything,” Smith said.
Hovering over Johnson’s speakership is Trump, the former president who elevated McCarthy to speakership but subsequently failed to save him from removal. Trump is now the party’s frontrunner for the 2024 presidential nomination to challenge Biden for the White House.
Johnson and Trump talk often, but some of Trump’s strongest allies in the House of Representatives are the conservatives who are pushing the speaker to the right and denying him a governing majority.
Trump signaled his skepticism about the impending border deal, but also his confidence, for now, in the speaker’s ability to broker the toughest possible deal for Republicans.
In many ways, Johnson lives day to day, much as McCarthy did, trying to keep Congress functioning and keeping his job.
“Speaker Johnson is in 24-hour survival mode,” said Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, a key Democratic negotiator on the border package. “He has to say what he has to say to survive from Wednesday to Thursday and Thursday. until Friday.”
The vote late last week to avoid a shutdown has exposed the limits of Johnson’s grip on his majority.
Republicans control the House by just a few seats, 220-213. That number will drop this weekend, when one of the many lawmakers who have already announced their retirements leaves early. Absences, illnesses and weather delays further reduce the numbers.
As the vote was underway, 107 Republicans voted against the temporary spending bill and 106 voted for it, which would have been a politically embarrassing outcome if not even a majority of Johnson’s majority were on board.
By the time the gavel struck at the close of voting, the bill had passed overwhelmingly, with Democrats over Republicans, 314-108. The final result was that 107 Republicans were in favor of the bill, and 106 Republicans were against it.
“He’s doing the best he can,” said Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and an unsuccessful rival for the gavel. “Mike is a good guy, a friend, and it’s a tough position, but he’s doing his best.”
