The Latest Breaking News from Kevin McCarthy

I’ve been covering Congress for years, and I never heard of the man who was elected speaker on Wednesday, writes Washington Bureau Chief Lynn Sweet.

Johnson's win marks the first time the GOP has unanimously elected a speaker since elevating John Boehner in 2011

The previously little-known rightwinger from Louisiana shows all the hallmarks of the ex-president’s voice

Louisiana congressman known as ‘Maga Mike’, elected House speaker Wednesday, is staunch Trump supporter and election denier

After the House of Representatives took the unprecedented step on Oct. 3, 2023, of removing its own speaker, Kevin McCarthy of California, with eight Republicans joining all 208 voting Democrats to “vacate the chair,” what followed was weeks of uncertainty. Until conservative Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson was elected speaker of…

Johnson is a relative newcomer to Congress who has never even chaired a committee, and he is a close ally of former President Donald Trump.

Republicans hope electing Johnson will unite their fractious majority and end weeks of chaos by elevating a little-known conservative to one of the highest seats of U.S. power.

All Texas Republicans in the U.S. House voted for Louisiana’s Mike Johnson to be speaker, ending a stalemate that has left the chamber leaderless for three weeks. Johnson is a deeply religious conservative who won the support of the party’s disparate factions.

Almost every aspect of current Republican Party politics defies historical precedent and obvious logic. Even in the House of Representatives, where, traditionally, a save-our-jobs mentality has always maintained a relative stability, Congressional Republicans, over the past several weeks, have publicly broken down in comic and operatic ways.

The boos and cheers said it all during the vote for Mike Johnson, whose first speech as speaker was much more restrained.

Louisiana congressman – and the party’s fourth nominee – wins support of all 220 Republicans who cast a ballot