Mike Johnson: Louisiana Republican elected as Speaker of US House of Representatives

What can we anticipate from Mike Johnson?

While the world has been targeted on the Middle East, the world’s strongest nation has been rudderless.

For the final 22 days, the speaker’s chair on Capitol Hill has been empty. The place of second in line to the presidency has been vacant.

Government in America has been paralysed.

Now, a messy democratic course of which had ousted the final speaker, Kevin McCarthy, has whittled down via fourteen candidates, 4 nominees and three home flooring votes and chosen Congressman Mike Johnson, 51, of Louisiana as the home speaker.

It is a pivotal position in American politics. The speaker is the seen and authoritative chief of the bulk within the House. They drive the agenda, they set the debates.

There is a contradiction between Johnson’s character and his politics. He’s softly spoken, heat and calm in his manner.

Yet his political beliefs are far to the proper of centre, in step with the offended divisive Trumpian politics which has dominated America lately.

A lawyer by commerce, he was first elected to the home in 2016. He is an evangelical Christian from Louisiana, a member of the Christian proper block of conservatives.

He ticks all of the bins for the Republican proper in America. He helps a nationwide abortion ban, he opposes identical intercourse marriages, he doesn’t consider in man-made local weather change.

Environmental teams say he has acquired extra marketing campaign cash from the oil and fuel business since being elected to congress than some other business.

We can anticipate he might be on the coronary heart of many battles with liberals and the President over America’s local weather change agenda.

“The climate is changing,” he stated in 2017, “but the question is, is it being caused by natural cycles over the span of the Earth’s history? Or is it changing because we drive SUVs? I don’t believe in the latter. I don’t think that’s the primary driver.”

He was amongst those that known as for the overturning of the 2020 election, believing that Donald Trump had received. He lobbied to invalidate the leads to a number of states.

In 2021, he wrote on X/Twitter: “I have just called President Trump to say this: ‘Stay strong and keep fighting, sir! The nation is depending upon your resolve. We must exhaust every available legal remedy to restore Americans’ trust in the fairness of our election system.’”

On essentially the most instantly urgent points, funding for Ukraine and Israel, each of which President Biden has known as for, he’s regarded as supportive. It’s doubtless he’ll name for extra army assist for each conflicts.