Mike Johnson has narrowly managed to win reelection as U.S. House Speaker. He received the minimum 218 votes on Friday, just a few hours after an initial vote came up short.
Speaking on MSNBC the same day, retired Congressman Fred Upton said Johnson’s path forward is going to be rocky. He says the majority that Johnson has to work with in the House is even slimmer than many realize.
“Literally within a couple of weeks, he’s going to have three fewer votes than he has today because three House Republicans are going to be joining the Trump administration and it’s going to take a special election, which means weeks of time to gather signatures, have a primary, have a general election,” Upton said. “It won’t be until late spring that those seats are filled.”
And Upton says some of those House members come from states with Democratic governors who won’t be anxious to allow another Republican back in office.
Upton also notes new House rules require nine members of one party to force a vote for a new Speaker, and Friday’s vote indicated exactly that number of potential holdouts exist in the House GOP. Upton said among the early holdouts were three House Republicans who voted for someone else, and six who didn’t initially vote.
