The 119th Congress opened Friday in a similar vein to the previous Congress, with a question hanging over the Capitol regarding whether the man on track to become Speaker could actually secure the job in a narrowly divided House.
Republican Mike Johnson came close to failing in his first try after three Republicans voted for other candidates for Speaker.
Republicans currently hold a razor-thin majority of 219 to 215, with one vacancy. Johnson needed to capture 218 votes to lead the chamber and it looked like he would end the first round with just 216.
But over the course of thirty minutes, as the vote was held open, Johnson met with two of the holdouts, Ralph Norman of South Carolina and Keith Self of Texas, after which the two came back out and changed their votes to him.
Instead of ending the first ballot at 216, that let Johnson clinch it with 218. Democrats lined up unanimously behind minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, while Kentucky Republican Tom Massie voted for another candidate – Tom Emmer.
All of Colorado’s Republican House members — Lauren Boebert, Jeff Crank, Gabe Evans and Jeff Hurd — voted for Johnson.
During the break when it looked like Johnson had lost the first ballot, Evans put a positive spin on the vote.
“We are the party of free thought, and so you’ll see a healthy debate and dialogue that happens within our own party for these things,” he told CPR News.
Evans said the party would unify. “We’ll get there, but again, we’re gonna have that dialogue.”
“Going to the House Floor to cast my vote for @SpeakerJohnson,” Crank wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Mike is a principled conservative who supports President Trump and advancing his agenda. I encourage my colleagues to vote with me.”
Boebert, who was involved in the speaker fight at the start of the 118th Congress, followed up her vote for Johnson by adding, “Don’t let us down, Mr. Speaker.”
Afterward, she downplayed the drama around the vote, pointing out it was one ballot, the chamber now has a Speaker and the Congress was sworn in on time.
“There have been ongoing conversations and sometimes they go a little bit longer than we would like,” she said of the Republicans who had reservations about Johnson.
As Speaker last year, Johnson campaigned and fundraised for the state’s newest Republican members: Crank, Evans and Hurd. He also endorsed Boebert after she switched districts and entered a crowded Republican primary field.
Despite strong conservative reservations that arose over the course of Johnson’s leadership in the last Congress, Johnson was helped in his quest to reclaim the gavel in the 119th by an endorsement from President-elect Donald Trump and the lack of a viable GOP alternative.
He first won the top job in October of 2023, after House Republicans struggled for three weeks to land a replacement for ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy, running through three other candidates before the exhausted caucus coalesced behind the relatively unknown Louisiana lawmaker.
Prior to the first ballot, members and their children mingled on the floor, including Evans and Hurd. Boulder Democrat Joe Neguse, who is the Assistant Minority Leader, spent time talking with Jeffries and others.
After the prolonged vote for speaker, with family or friends looking on, all eight Colorado congress members were sworn into office. It was a step that got skipped in the last Congress. After four days and 15 rounds of voting, lawmakers in the 118th were finally sworn into office in the early hours of Saturday morning.
That was a scenario Johnson managed to avoid repeating.
