WASHINGTON — New Speaker Mike Johnson finds himself leading House Republicans with a majority in name only.
Unable to unite his unruly right flank and commanding one of the slimmest House majorities in history, Johnson is being forced to rely on Democrats for the basics of governing, including the latest bill to prevent a federal shutdown.
Approaching his first 100 days on the job, Johnson faces daunting choices ahead. He can try to corral conservatives, who are pushing rightward in endless hours of closed-door meetings, to work together as a team. Or he can keep reaching out to Democrats for a bipartisan coalition to pass compromise legislation.
So far, rather than the speaker of a dysfunctional GOP majority, Johnson, R-La., has shown he is willing to compile a rare, large supermajority of Democrats and Republicans to get things done with Democratic President Joe Biden.
And that supermajority is exactly what some in Congress want, but others fear is coming.
“Everyone understands the reality of where we are,” Johnson said at a weekly news conference.
“The House Republicans have the second-smallest majority in history,” he said. “We’re not going to get everything that we want. But we’re going to stick to our core conservative principles.”
Johnson is about as conservative as they come in Washington. He’s a “movement” conservative steeped in Christian beliefs who made his way from Louisiana working in the trenches of hard-right social policy, particularly against abortion, gay rights and other issues.
Elected in 2016, Johnson has become aligned with Donald Trump who won the White House that year, and Johnson led a key legal challenge for Trump in 2020 trying to overturn Biden’s election.
For now, the far-right forces that ousted Johnson’s predecessor, former Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, from the speaker’s office, are allowing a grace period. They are frustrated by Johnson’s reluctance to take dramatic action such as a government shutdown to win their priorities. But they are heartened that at least Johnson is forthcoming with them.
But the hard-line Republicans are watching and waiting — any single lawmaker can file a motion for a vote to oust the speaker — especially as Johnson confronts the challenges ahead on government spending, U.S. border security and wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
“It’s a loss for the American people to join hands with Democrats to form a governing coalition,” said Virginia Rep. Bob Good, the newly elected chairman of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, after last week’s vote to keep government running.
Good complained that passage of the short-term spending bill, which Biden signed into law before the Friday midnight deadline, was “a failure.”
Johnson will confront another shutdown threat March 1 when some of the temporary funding again runs out.
More immediately, Johnson and House Republicans are warily watching Senate negotiations over an immigration and border security package designed to reduce the record flow of migrants and expedite the deportations of some of those who have already entered the United States illegally.
Biden is considering the emerging border deal as part of his broader $110 billion national security package, which has grown urgent as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s forces need to replenish weaponry in their fight against Russia’s invasion.
But such a deal swapping border policy for Ukraine aid could be politically devastating for Johnson, whose Trump-aligned Republicans want an even harder line against the migrants at the U.S-Mexico border and a more isolationist approach to U.S. foreign policy that rejects Ukraine aid.
Biden hosted congressional leaders at the White House this past week, surrounding the new speaker with prominent and influential voices, including the chairmen of the national security committees, to impress on Johnson the weight of the challenges ahead.
It put the speaker in a central seat of U.S. power.
The top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Adam Smith of Washington state, spoke up at one point during the White House meeting. He made a pitch to Johnson.
“The argument I made to him was, ‘You know, the border is not going to be ‘solved,’” Smith recalled.
Smith told Johnson there is no “magic piece of legislation” that will suddenly end the countless numbers of migrants pouring northward.
“But we can make it better,” Smith said.