Pro-Donald Trump Republican Representative, Mike Johnson, secured United States’ House Speaker seat in the fourth round of a protracted vote on Wednesday.
The 51-year-old politician polled 220 votes in the lower chamber of Congress against 209 scored by his Democrat rival, Hakeem Jeffries.
Johnson replaces fellow GOP, Kevin McCarthy, ousted in the Republican-dominated House of Representatives more than three weeks ago.
Johnson’s election ended weeks of chaos and Republican infighting on Capitol Hill.
The conservative Louisiana lawmaker is the fourth Republican nominated for the position since Kevin McCarthy’s ouster on October 3.
The previous nominee, Minnesota’s Tom Emmer, abruptly dropped out of the race on Tuesday after about four hours.
Johnson’s success in the hard-fought Speaker battle represents a victory for the ideologically right-wing, Trump-aligned faction of the Republican Party and a loss for its moderates, whose candidates struggled to gain traction among conservative representatives on Capitol Hill.
Addressing the House after the vote, Johnson said that the last-minute negotiations meant that his wife was unable to get a flight to Washington in time for his installation as Speaker.
“She’s a little worn out, we all are,” he said.
He mentioned border security, inflation and the conflict in the Middle East as some of his main priorities as Speaker.
“The challenge before us is great, but the time for action is now, and I will not let you down,” Johnson said. “We know that there’s a lot going on in our country, domestically and abroad, and we are ready to get to work again to solve those problems”.
Johnson promised that the first bill he would introduce would be in support of Israel, one of the few areas of bipartisan agreement.
“We are overdue in getting that done,” he said.
Speaking on the Capitol steps after he was sworn in, Johnson vowed to set an “aggressive” schedule now that the House is “back in business”.
Still, there are other political storms brewing in both the closely divided House and in the Republican party that could slow down the pace.
The House now faces a deadline of November 17 to come to an agreement to continue funding the U.S. government, or face a shutdown.
McCarthy made the deal to extend the budget deadline for six weeks, and then faced the wrath of angry hardliners in the Republican Party who orchestrated his ouster.
Following Johnson’s election, several representatives singled out the budget issue as the most pressing facing the House in the near-future.
“We need not waste any time,” New York Republican Anthony D’Esposito said of the issue. “What we’ve done the last few days is not work”.
Johnson also takes a staunchly conservative position on a number of policy issues, including abortion rights and same-sex marriage, which he opposes, that could make it difficult to reach across the aisle.
Like many in the right wing of his party, Johnson is against further U.S. aid to Ukraine, as well.
His views have sparked alarm among some Democrats.
One, California’s Adam Schiff, told reporters that he sees Johnson as “one of the very determined ideologues” who is “not among the Republicans who are much more open to working together on a variety of issues”.
In a statement, the Congressional Equality Caucus, made up of openly LGBT representatives, described Johnson as someone with a “demonstrated career attacking LGBTQI+ people across the country”.
By electing him Speaker, “his supporters have signalled they want these attacks against our community to continue”, Wisconsin Democrat Mark Pocan said in the statement.
