The new Republican speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, is not exactly a household name. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, was so ignorant of him when his GOP colleagues placed him second in line for the presidency last week that she told a reporter she would have to Google him.
All of that is probably going to change by November of next year.
Johnson is an election-denying, Trump-loving, pro-abortion, anti-gay rights, anti-climate change, conspiracy-theorizing conservative. House Democrats have the potential to make Mike Johnson a household name, but not in a positive way.
Johnson adopts an extreme, maximalist stance on almost every topic on which House Republicans will be weak in 2024.
Let’s face it, Republicans were stuck for choices and ultimately decided on Johnson. McCarthy Kevin was let go. Jim Jordan couldn’t get in. Moreover, Tom Emmer’s four hours as speaker-designate were hardly enough. But Republicans made a tiny mistake when choosing Johnson: they neglected to thoroughly investigate him.
Had they done so, they would have learned that he was the ideal speaker candidate for Democrats. Johnson adopts an extreme, maximalist stance on almost every topic on which House Republicans will be weak in 2024. He will be a political albatross for any of the GOP contenders in a close contest, particularly the eighteen House Republicans vying in congressional districts that President Biden won in 2020.
Let’s begin with a straightforward illustration: defending American democracy. In addition to being a collaborator with Trump in his attempt to rig the 2020 election, Johnson was also, according to The New York Times, “an architect” of Republican objections to the House of Representatives’ certification of the election results.
Politico describes him as “the leading voice” in the House “in support of a fateful position: that the GOP should rally around Donald Trump and object to the counting of electoral votes from at least a few states that Joe Biden won.”
Johnson was a devoted follower of Trump, even signing an amicus brief in favor of Texas’ lawsuit to nullify the results of elections in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin, despite the fact that many members backed him for petty reasons.
House Democratic challengers may use their vote to appoint Johnson as speaker as evidence if they wish to campaign on the platform that their Republican rivals pose a threat to democracy.
In theory, every Republican member of the House who supported Johnson supported his efforts to deny voting rights to tens of millions of Americans. At the very least, that is how Democratic candidates will spin it.
What if Democratic contenders choose to highlight the GOP’s backing of laws prohibiting abortion? Johnson has provided them with a wealth of content.
Republicans already had a slim five-seat majority and a challenging road ahead of them if they wanted to hold onto the House.
Regarding the Supreme Court’s ruling to reverse Roe v. Wade, he remarked, “It is a joyous occasion that many of us have been working towards our entire adult lives.” “There is no right to abortion in the Constitution; there never was,” he proclaimed, labeling the procedure a “holocaust.” It is conceivable that women in competitive House districts will disagree.
Johnson has previously co-sponsored legislation that would place restrictions on access to abortion services across the country, despite his declaration that he will not push Congress to enact a federal abortion ban. Though voters may not be aware of it yet, Democratic attack advertisements will surely mention that fact come election season.
Johnson has even linked the teaching of evolution, no-fault divorce, and abortion to school shootings. In fact, it appears that Johnson has placed the blame for gun violence elsewhere besides the weapons themselves. Following the horrific mass shooting in Maine that claimed the lives of eighteen people last week, Johnson declared that the true issue “is the human heart.” It’s not weapons.
It raises the question of whether Americans, who have the highest rate of gun violence worldwide, have broken hearts or, more likely, have too easy access to firearms?
What would happen if you were an ally or a member of the LGBTI+ community? Democrats also have attack commercials for you! According to Johnson, same-sex unions are promoted by “radical homosexual advocacy groups” and are therefore “counterfeit legal arrangements.” He twice appeared in court as an attorney for conservative religious groups to support Louisiana’s prohibition on gay marriage.
In addition, he has declared that homosexual marriage is “the dark harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy that could doom even the strongest republic” and called homosexuality “sinful and destructive.”
Oh, and one more thing: Johnson has endorsed the racist “great replacement” theory, which suggests that Democrats wish to replace white voters with immigrants of color, as Greg Sargent of The Washington Post wrote last week. He has stated that Democrats want to “turn all these illegals into voters for their side” and that they wish to “destruction our country at the expense of our own people.”
Democrats are ahead of schedule in characterizing Johnson as an extremist.
Whatever the subject, Johnson has adopted stances that are both extremely unconventional and already utilized by Democrats to galvanize support.
Republicans already had a slim five-seat majority and a challenging road ahead of them if they wanted to hold onto the House. After the Supreme Court ordered the state to establish a second, majority-black district, Democrats are already almost certain to win a seat in Alabama. Upcoming cases in Louisiana and Florida, along with similar rulings in Georgia, could give the Democrats an additional two to three seats. (Although GOP-led gerrymandering in North Carolina is expected to give Republicans a number of seats, new maps in blue New York will probably negate that.)
Republicans therefore stand a very good chance of starting the 2024 campaign season virtually level with Democrats, all other things being equal. Now, in districts that Biden won, their most vulnerable members must contend with the additional burden of justifying their votes for Johnson as speaker.
Ironically, despite the fact that vulnerable Republicans opposed Jordan due to concerns about his past, Johnson’s extensive record of derogatory remarks and policy stances, along with his general lack of recognition, may make him a less acceptable speaker for those Republicans. Democrats are well on their way to characterizing Johnson as an extremist, and they will only gain momentum as Election Day 2024 draws near.
Therefore, even though Republicans’ highly visible and embarrassing battle over the speaker may have come to an end for the time being, by choosing Johnson, they have given themselves a greater range of political difficulties.
