Mike Johnson hangs on, however his challenges are solely starting: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the web model of From the Politics Desk, a night e-newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics workforce’s newest reporting and evaluation from the White House, Capitol Hill and the marketing campaign path.

In at this time’s version, we dive into how Mike Johnson managed to outlive a decent re-election bid for House speaker on the primary day of the 119th Congress and the challenges that await him. Plus, “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker” sits down with the brand new majority chief within the Senate, John Thune.

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Mike Johnson is re-elected as House speaker with a lift from Trump, however his challenges are solely starting 

By Scott Wong, Sahil Kapur, Kyle Stewart and Syedah Asghar

Mike Johnson was narrowly re-elected as speaker of the House on Friday, beating again a tiny right-wing rise up that finally caved. 

A trio of conservative rebels initially voted to dam Johnson from being re-elected speaker, defying President-elect Donald Trump, who backed the Louisiana Republican, and threatening to paralyze the House. 

They have been amongst 9 Republicans who publicly hesitated in the course of the speaker’s vote — two initially voted for different candidates earlier than flipping for Johnson, and 6 extra withheld their votes in the course of the first roll name. Those 9 are notable because the GOP’s new guidelines package deal, if adopted, would require 9 lawmakers to set off a “movement to vacate” the speaker’s chair and take away Johnson — up from one member. 

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who has railed for weeks towards Johnson, solid his vote for Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn. And Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., voted for Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, whereas Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, voted for Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla.

But that’s when Trump started getting concerned, making a number of telephone calls personally urging the holdouts to rally behind Johnson to enact his agenda. In the center of his golf recreation, Trump obtained on the road with GOP Rep. Nancy Mace who handed the telephone to Norman, her South Carolina colleague, the latter stated.

“He stated, ‘Norman, we’ve obtained probably the most alternative we’ve ever had, three homes … the trifecta. You don’t get that chance,’” Norman recalled. “And I stated, ‘Mr. President, I agree with you however I’m simply hoping Mike has obtained the oomph to tug it off.’”

Later, Johnson huddled within the cloakroom simply off the ground with Norman and Self, in addition to key conservative members who voted for him — together with House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., and previous Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry, R-Pa.

Trump once more was placed on the telephone with the holdouts, Norman stated. The president’s message to the group was “Get united!” in accordance with Johnson. 

They emerged roughly 20 minutes later, and Self and Norman switched their votes, each backing the speaker.

That gave Johnson the 218 votes he wanted to safe victory, with all 215 Democrats backing House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. 

Read extra on Friday’s vote →

But for Johnson, holding the gavel was the simple half. 

The House GOP majority is poised to shrink even additional within the coming weeks, with Trump asserting he’ll pluck two House Republicans, Michael Waltz of Florida and Elise Stefanik of New York, to serve in his administration. With Matt Gaetz’s resignation, their eventual departure will go away Republicans with a 217-215 majority, which means they may have a zero-vote margin for defection within the essential early months of Trump’s presidency.

And they’ve an extended to-do record: fund the federal government by March 14; move Trump’s agenda on immigration, vitality and taxes; and prolong the debt ceiling.

Even when the get together returns to full power, the House majority may have hassle passing party-line laws if a handful of members fall unwell, have scheduling conflicts or expertise climate delays stopping them from attending to Washington in time for key votes. 

Read extra on the duties awaiting Johnson → 

Welcome to the 119th Congress: Here are 11 rank-and-file lawmakers from each events who may play an outsize position within the narrowly divided House over the subsequent two years. 

John Thune says Johnson has a ‘actually robust job’ forward with a skinny GOP majority

By Alexandra Marquez

Over within the Senate, the brand new majority chief, John Thune, may have a bit extra respiration room with a 53-47 majority. 

In an interview with “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker that happened because the House was choosing a speaker, Thune stated Johnson may have “a very, actually robust job,” navigating a slim House majority. 

“I believe he has been conscious of his members, however he’s obtained a whole lot of people which might be headed in several instructions,” Thune stated. “I imply, as you already know, that with a slim margin like that, any particular person member of the House of Representatives can have a big impact.” 

Thune stated that he and Johnson may have a “robust working relationship,” though the 2 males haven’t labored intently earlier than. 

Thune additionally famous that he expects Senate and House GOP leaders to work intently collectively and with Trump to succeed on their coverage objectives. 

“I do suppose that they may must be, and we are going to must be as a Senate and with the White House working intently as a workforce, if we’re going to get an agenda executed that we wish to accomplish for the American folks,” Thune stated.

Read extra →

Congress, as soon as once more, is getting older

By Joe Murphy

With a mean member age of 58.9 years previous, the 119th Congress is the third oldest since 1789, in accordance with an NBC News evaluation of congressional membership and birth-date information. 

We discovered that whereas the Senate obtained a little bit youthful, the House aged, and that child boomers are dropping seats to Generation X and millennials. 

The evaluation of information from Legistorm, the Almanac of American Politics and the @unitedstates challenge, a bunch that tracks congressional info, calculates the age of every session of Congress as of the primary day of the session, with the members who have been sworn in that day. (For occasion 73-year-old Sen.-elect Jim Justice, R-W.Va., who will take Joe Manchin’s Senate seat on Jan. 13, was not included as a result of Justice won’t be a member of the physique on Jan. 3.) 

The common age of the Senate, 63.8 years, continues to be years older than that of the House, at 57.7 years.