Johnson reclaims speakership

In a surprising move, Mike Johnson managed to tamp down a conservative rebellion and secured the support to remain speaker on the first ballot Friday, after two Republicans who initially opposed him flipped their votes.

After a long break, Reps. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) and Keith Self (R-Texas) switched their votes to Johnson after initially backing others for the top House job.

It’s a major boon for Republican vows to swiftly implement President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda. Trump weighed in repeatedly in Johnson’s favor as the contest played out.

Ultimately, only one GOP lawmaker opposed Johnson’s bid, despite about a dozen other conservatives publicly refusing to back him ahead of the vote. The speaker had worked behind the scenes for weeks to secure their backing, after a spending fiasco in December infuriated many of them.

Rep. Thomas Masssie (R-Ky.) held to his opposition against Johnson while other conservatives opted to back him. In addition to the two lawmakers who flipped their votes, nearly a dozen other holdouts opted to support him.

Johnson was counseled against making any side deals to placate conservatives — with moderates wary of similar agreements made by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy that significantly weakened leadership and eventually led to his ouster. After the vote, Johnson told reporters that he had changed “nothing” to get Norman and Self to flip their votes.

Democrats hung together to back Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.