House speaker vote live updates: Mike Johnson seeks to win over Republican skeptics in his bid for re-election
Republican House speaker Mike Johnson is bracing for what could be a fraught battle on Friday as he seeks to hang on to the gavel when Congress returns from its holiday recess.
Despite having the full-throated endorsement of President-elect Donald Trump, the Louisiana Representative can only afford one Republican rebellion against his re-election bid when the lower chamber’s members cast their votes, so tight is the GOP’s 219 to 211 majority over the Democrats.
One congressman, Thomas Massie, has already stressed his objections to Johnson, telling One America News’s Matt Gaetz Show on Monday evening that he would not back the incumbent.
“You can pull all my fingernails out, you can shove bamboo up in them, you can start cutting off my fingers,” Massie said.
“I am not voting for Mike Johnson tomorrow, and you can take that to the bank.”
Several of his colleagues have likewise said they are unconvinced by Johnson or will require major concessions in exchange for supporting him.
A number of alternative candidates have been mooted should Johnson fail, from the plausible like Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan to the utterly fanciful in the case of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
