Republican Congressman from Louisiana Mike Johnson has been elected as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, said an official on Thursday. The election of Johnson, whose candidature was supported by former President Donald Trump, brought an end to three weeks of uncertainty in US politics.
The chair of the US Speaker was vacant after Kevin McCarthy was unceremoniously voted out of the seat for the first time in US history.
Johnson was elected by 220 to 209 votes in a bitterly divided Congress, three weeks after his predecessor was ousted from the post.
Republicans hold a majority in House
In the 435-member House, the Republicans hold a slender majority with 221 seats against 212 of the Democrats.
Who is Johnson?
51-year-old Johnson will be the 56th Speaker of the House of Representatives. He is a lawyer by profession. Johnson is a four-term Congressman from the Fourth Congressional District of Louisiana.
Johnson's reaction after winning the vote
Johnson, in his maiden address to the Congress, said his first legislative agenda would be to bring a resolution in support of war-torn Israel.
“We are going to show not only Israel but the entire world that the barbarism of Hamas that we have seen play out on our television screens is wretched and wrong," he said.
What are the challenges for Johnson?
Meanwhile, Johnson's main challenge at hand would be to avoid a government shutdown by passing the spending bill and approving the USD 100 billion request by President Joe Biden to fund the war in Israel and Ukraine.
Johnson said that he would propose a short-term measure to fund the government through January 15 or April 15.
“So, at this time yesterday, nobody was thinking of Mike and then we put out the word and now he's speaker of the House, so I wanted to thank all of the supporters that I have and I want to thank all of the supporters Mike has, and again he will be a great speaker," Trump said after the election of the new speaker.
The position of Speaker of the House of Representatives is one of the most powerful political chairs in the country and is third in the line of succession after the US President.
(With AP inputs)
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