House Speaker Mike Johnson is running for office again. The Republican from Louisiana will again be a candidate for speaker on Friday, when the new session of the lower house of the United States Congress takes place, and it will be tested whether the Republicans - who have a narrow majority - will re-elect him.
The problem is that Johnson needs the vote of literally every Republican to get elected.
Johnson has an ace up his sleeve - the support of President-elect Donald Trump. However, it is not certain that Trump's blessing will be enough to convince far-right Republicans who are dissatisfied with Johnson's leadership, and who demand to get something for their votes.
Mike Johnson assumed the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives in October 2023, when he replaced the dismissed Republican Kevin McCarthy. But Johnson's handling of uncertain situations, such as the passage of aid to Ukraine last spring and the recent budget vote, has turned some of his allies into adversaries.
The Republicans now have a narrow majority of 220 seats to the Democrats' 215, and in such a situation it is enough for only two Republicans to vote for someone else and make it impossible for Johnson to be the leader of the House of Representatives again.
There is no House of Representatives without a Speaker
The election of the chairman is the first task of the new convocation of the Congress, at the session that begins on January 3 at noon. The vote takes place even before the new members of Congress are sworn in.
The House of Representatives cannot practically start working before electing a Speaker. Elections are held if the chairman dies, resigns or is voted out of office. According to the Congressional Research Service, the position of Speaker has been vacant only 13 times in US history, and not once has the Speaker been replaced - until the Republicans decided to vote with the Democrats and remove Kevin McCarthy.
Under regular circumstances, the Speaker is elected at the beginning of a new session of Congress and remains in office for two years.
The session at which the Speaker of the House of Representatives is elected is chaired by an administrative officer. MPs are called and go to the rostrum where they announce the name of their candidate, which is a process that takes a long time and raises the tension around the election.
Who can be nominated?
Any name can be called at the lectern. Although tradition dictates that the Speaker should be a member of the House of Representatives, this is not an official requirement.
In past years, presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump, as well as Kentucky senator Rand Paul, have been nominated in this way. None of them won a majority, and generally, the one formally nominated by the party ends up as chairman.
Republicans chose Johnson as their candidate back in November. A week later, the Democrats decided to keep Hakeem Jeffries as their leader, even though they suffered losses in the elections.
MPs are not obliged to vote for the candidate nominated by the party, so the process can become a little chaotic.
Voting process
When the Congress obtains a quorum, that is, when the minimum number of members necessary to hold a session is present, the speeches of the candidates for the chairmanship are held. The administrative officer, who leads the session, designates one representative of each party who will count the votes before the roll call voting begins.
It is necessary that the majority of the present representatives in the Congress vote for the chairman.
Historically, the magic number has proven to be 218 out of 435 members of the House of Representatives. But many chairmen, including McCarthy, were elected with fewer votes, as some members voted "present" instead of saying the name of the candidate they supported. Each MP who votes "present" actually reduces the number of votes needed for the speaker candidate to win.
It is still not certain that Johnson will win enough votes in the first round. If not, another round of voting will most likely be organized.
Kevin McCarthy went through as many as 15 rounds of voting before being elected chairman in January 2023.
Handing over the Chair's gavel
When the candidate for chairman wins a sufficient number of votes, the administrative officer presiding over the meeting announces the results.
The bipartisan committee, which usually includes congressmen from the chairman's home state, accompanies the new chairman to his chair, where he is sworn in. The text of that oath is the same as for other members of the House of Representatives.
The outgoing chairman usually joins his successor, hands him the gavel and nods - all signs of a peaceful handover of office from one leader to another.
But if Johnson is re-elected, he will be handed the gavel by Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic minority leader.
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