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\n

With less than 24 hours left until the start of the 119th Congress, Mike Johnson doesn\u2019t have the votes yet to remain speaker.<\/p>\n

The Louisiana Republican has been working diligently over the past few days to lock down the 218 votes he needs, even after spending the holidays working the phones and meeting with incoming President-elect Donald Trump. But even the incoming president\u2019s repeated endorsement earlier this week doesn\u2019t mean Johnson is guaranteed a victory. Roughly a dozen Republicans are still on the fence, as some of them try to get concessions on the rules or commitments from Johnson on spending.<\/p>\n

There are some positive signs for the speaker. In addition to Trump\u2019s restated backing, Johnson has managed to keep his official \u201cno\u201d votes to only one so far \u2014 Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.). And one notable holdout, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), is back in Johnson\u2019s camp. Plus, despite multiple conservatives expressing reservations about Johnson, there\u2019s not a clear alternative candidate who could get the votes.<\/p>\n

And Johnson\u2019s allies believe they\u2019re making progress in decreasing the number of Republicans who are outwardly opposed to him retaining the gavel, according to two Republicans familiar with the conversations, viewing them as \u201cpretty soft holdouts<\/a>.\u201d Still, the speaker\u2019s allies privately admit he may not be able to win on the first few ballots.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we’ll get it done,\u201d Johnson told Fox News on Thursday about the Friday speaker vote. \u201cI’ve talked to every single one of those friends and colleagues over the holidays.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to Gosar, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), a close ally of Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), said on Thursday<\/a> that he\u2019s backing Johnson, noting that \u201cTrump wants Speaker Johnson.\u201d Incoming Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas), who is likely to join the Freedom Caucus, also pointed to<\/a> Trump\u2019s backing, saying \u201cMike\u2019s the guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The speakership vote will be the first test of House Republicans\u2019 ability to unify this year, as they hope to achieve ambitious legislative goals on the border, energy and taxes with full control of Congress and the White House. As the Johnson drama shows, Trump\u2019s backing doesn\u2019t necessarily mean Republicans can pass their priorities, given an incredibly narrow margin in the House and a wide ideological range among GOP lawmakers.<\/p>\n

Still, Johnson and his allies are putting Trump at the center of their two main arguments as they try to sway the holdouts. First, they point out that a messy, drawn-out speaker’s race risks a delay in certifying Trump\u2019s presidential win on Jan. 6. Second, if Republicans are consumed with trying to iron out their own leadership it overshadows the start of the second Trump administration, right at a time when leaders want to look unified. In recent weeks, Trump has privately warned GOP lawmakers against doing anything that takes away from the start of his second presidency, according to one GOP lawmaker who has spoken with him, granted anonymity to speak frankly.<\/p>\n

And his allies are also pointing out the conference has the same problem it did after former Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted, when Johnson first rose to the perch. All the potential alternatives \u2014 such as Majority Leader Steve Scalise, GOP Whip Tom Emmer (Minn.) and Jordan \u2014 still have problems that would prevent them from getting the requisite votes. Even some of Johnson\u2019s skeptics acknowledge it\u2019s a significant problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho would want the job?\u201d asked Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), who remains undecided on supporting Johnson and is pushing for commitments on spending.<\/p>\n

Trump said on New Year’s Eve that he\u2019ll make calls on Johnson\u2019s behalf, but there\u2019s still lingering skepticism that Trump will actively step in to save Johnson.<\/p>\n

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) made calls to other House Republicans over the holiday recess to vibe-check Jordan and other potential candidates if Johnson can\u2019t the votes \u2014 outreach first reported by Blue Light News.<\/p>\n

Jordan, Scalise and Emmer all made bids for the gavel following McCarthy\u2019s ouster last year but are now supporting Johnson. Members of the House Freedom Caucus have also floated Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), who brushed off any interest to reporters late last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remain undecided, as do a number of my colleagues, because we saw so many of the failures last year,\u201d Roy told Fox Business. \u201cRight now, I don\u2019t believe he has the votes on Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With less than 24 hours left until the start of the 119th Congress, Mike Johnson doesn\u2019t have the votes yet to remain speaker. The Louisiana Republican has been working diligently over the past few days to lock down the 218 votes he needs, even after spending the holidays working the phones and meeting with incoming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4338\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}