Johnson’s Resilience: Overcoming Challenges as Speaker amid Republican Division

Here is my rewrite: Over the past month, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has achieved what once seemed impossible. Despite a contentious conference and his own lack of experience as speaker, he managed to push through three bills that caused division among Republicans during much of the 118th Congress. Each piece of legislation presented its own challenges for him in terms of compromise with Democrats and sometimes lacking support from House Republican members themselves. However, Johnson has emerged stronger than before these contentious debates. He is now less likely to face an ouster attempt by hard-liners who previously considered his tenure as speaker questionable due to his perceived missteps on federal spending issues. Furthermore, he has taken steps towards displaying GOP unity in the wake of recent protests against Israel’s actions at Columbia University and other divisive Democratic debates. Johnson entered the speakership position without the same level of loyalty that previous speakers had earned from their colleagues due to his relative obscurity as a fourth-choice candidate for Republicans exhausted by three weeks of division over who should replace Kevin McCarthy. This lack of support created difficulties, particularly in relation to federal spending issues. He inherited an already fractious group of rebels who considered a deal that McCarthy had struck on the debt limit a betrayal. However, Johnson faced challenges from new and unforeseen fronts as well: a group of New York Republicans mirrored tactics used by the Freedom Caucus in January when they threatened to tank a procedural vote on the House floor over tax reform issues. Despite these setbacks and delays, Johnson has succeeded where McCarthy failed – protecting himself from his right-flank while also getting critical pieces of legislation through Congress without threatening to split Republicans further apart. For example, he brought former President Donald Trump around to support a bill for Israel despite the latter’s misgivings about funding Ukraine’s war efforts. Johnson has shown hard-liners deference in structuring bills and shaping them as much as possible under divided government circumstances while also seeking modest wins that benefit Republicans. His decision not to let demands from his GOP opponents become a stumbling block is another factor contributing to the current stability of his position, which some see as an act of pragmatism given the political reality on Capitol Hill and within the House Republican caucus itself. With all major fiscal cliffs behind them for now (other than pending reauthorizations for both FAA authorities and government funding in May/September), Johnson is a lame-duck speaker, making it less likely that hardliners will seek to remove him from his position given the potential chaos this could cause. Additionally, with Republicans’ slim majority at risk of being lost sooner rather than later (either through November midterms or beforehand in the event of another speakership fight), many are hesitant to depose Johnson now when all major legislative battles have already been fought and won by his administration thus far during this Congress.