WASHINGTON (UNITED STATES) (ITALPRESS) – House Speaker Mike Johnson is facing a decisive challenge ahead of tomorrow, Friday, Jan. 3, the day the new Congress meets in Washington to consider his reelection. To win a new term, the incumbent speaker needs almost all Republican votes. President-elect Donald Trump has already expressed his support on social media, but it is doubtful that the mogul’s endorsement will convince far-right Republicans.
Johnson won the House speaker’s seat in October 2023 following the removal of Kevin McCarthy. At the time he enjoyed unanimous praise from Republicans, but his latest stances have divided the party, particularly at the time last spring when Johnson endorsed the Ukraine aid package sought by the Biden administration.
As it stands, Republicans hold a slim 220 to 215 majority in the House, and for that reason it would only take two Republican lawmakers voting for other candidates to deny Johnson a majority and thus a guarantee of a new term as speaker of the House.
In keeping with tradition, the election of the new House speaker takes place even before the swearing-in of the new members of Congress. The reason for this is purely organizational, since the House cannot go on with its work until it has a speaker, who simultaneously serves as the administrative head of the institution and Speaker of the House.
When it comes to voting, the criteria to be met in order to become Speaker involves a majority vote of the members of the House present and voting. In these cases the magic number is 218 out of 435 members of the House, although there are precedents where several speakers have won with fewer votes. A phenomenon that occurs when voters certify their presence in the chamber but no opinion is expressed on the vote.
Once the House has reached a quorum, or the minimum number of members present to proceed, nominating speeches will be made on behalf of the speaker candidates. The secretary appoints legislators from each party as tellers to count the votes before the roll call begins.
Once a presidential candidate gets a majority of those present and voting, the secretary will announce the results of the election. A bipartisan committee, usually composed of members from the home state of the successful candidate, will escort the president-elect to the chair at the podium where the oath of office will be administered.
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(ITALPRESS).
US, Congress meets to elect new House speaker
