As the sun rises over the nation, political observers will be hit with wave after wave of "Who Is Mike Johnson?" stories from various media outlets. The Shreveport, Louisiana, Congressman is little known outside of hyper-political circles and Louisiana pundits, but within the halls of Congress, he has a pretty good relationship with virtually all of his Republican colleagues.
But it's the Democrats who are losing their minds over the revelation that Johnson is a social conservative who also sided with Trump when it comes to questioning the legitimacy of the 2020 election. During a floor speech Wednesday after winning the Speaker's gavel, Johnson gave a passionate defense of his faith. He is unapologetically pro-life. He is more of a policy hawk than past Speakers (save Paul Ryan, though Johnson has ultimately proven himself more socially conservative than Ryan).
It is amusing, then, to watch Democrats freak out over Johnson's ascension. After all, they sided with Matt Gaetz and seven other Republicans to oust Kevin McCarthy. It's clear they had hoped to use the chaos to get a more moderate Republican into the Speaker's chair, or just leave House Republicans in chaos for weeks on end. It is also clear, given their reaction, that they had not intended for the next Speaker to be as conservative as Johnson is.
"Johnson is polite, relatively soft-spoken, intellectual and highly principled," Scott McKay of The Hayride, a conservative website in Louisiana, said of Johnson. And he's not wrong. Johnson is not bombastic, but he is a strong conservative and extremely principled. The most conservative pundits in his home state - McKay and radio host Moon Griffon - are thrilled to see Johnson sitting atop the U.S. House of Representatives.
But he has never been in a major leadership position except as head of the Republican Study Committee. He has not chaired any legislative committees in D.C. and he has not held a leadership position. However, he was a member of Trump's inner circle, Louisiana media reported, and he spearheaded an amicus brief on behalf of Trump during the legal battles over the 2020 election. Johnson rightfully noted that in several swing states, there were irregularities and straight-up unconstitutional actions, like changing election rules in the middle of the election.
During the Trump impeachment nonsense, Johnson stood by him. In fact, there is only one time since Trump went into office that he and Johnson differed: The Affordable Care Act.
Trump and Republicans like Johnson had run in 2016 on repealing the Affordable Care Act. They hurriedly put together legislation in the House to replace Obamacare when the new Congress convened in 2017.
But conservatives like Johnson and members of the ultra right Freedom Caucus balked, despite Trump's support. "It was haphazardly drawn," Johnson said. "The party wasn't prepared to act that soon. I couldn't vote for it."
Trump called Johnson and dressed him down in a fierce one-sided conversation when he heard the freshman planned to buck the president.
"I thought that might be the end of my career," Johnson said. "The conversation was pretty intense."
That legislation died, but the House, with Johnson's vote, later passed a revamped bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act that failed in the Senate on the late Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain's famous late-night thumbs down vote.
Despite that moment, Johnson has been a solid supporter of Trump's policies in office.
It's also highly likely that Johnson is not going to be so ready to shell out money to Ukraine in its ongoing conflict with Russia. Like other conservatives, he has voiced concerns over freely handing out money like party favors to Ukraine and wants to see more accountability for where that money is and who it is going to.
American taxpayers have sent over $100 billion in aid to Ukraine in the last year.
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) February 28, 2023
They deserve to know if the Ukrainian government is being entirely forthcoming and transparent about the use of this massive sum of taxpayer resources. pic.twitter.com/pf0ZpjzU2f
And yet, he is still the Speaker, despite Ukrainian aid being something moderate Republicans want to continue. He has not spoken much on aid to Israel, but it's clear that he supports them, and we're likely to see House Republicans more likely to approve of it under Johnson's leadership.
Johnson has sided with conservatives time and again and has been a vocal supporter of conservatism as an ideology and a movement. House Republicans certainly could have done worse, but in this moment they made an absolutely stellar call and, as a result, the new Speaker is arguably one of the most conservative Speakers in history, if not the most conservative.
