Three weeks after the historic ousting of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), four votes on the House floor, 11 men with hopes of gaining the Speakership, and four candidates deemed fit for the job, Mike Johnson (R-LA) became the successor to the gavel. Despite only becoming Speaker of the House on October 25, Johnson already has a plethora of challenges to tackle. These include whether to send aid to Israel and Ukraine and the impending government shutdown on November 17th.
Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, Johnson was a lesser-known politician in the House before his Speakership. Describing himself as a “Bible-believing Christian,” Johnson has a long history of centering his politics around traditional Christian values, leading some to describe him as a Christian nationalist. Johnson often bemoans the nation’s increasing ideological landscape, especially when it comes to issues of abortion and LGBTQ+ rights. “In the space of a few decades, [Democrats] have managed to criminalize Christianity in the popular culture, and promote guilt and self-doubt as the foremost qualities of our national character,” Johnson told the New York Times. Johnson’s religiousness is not only evident in the public eye, but his colleagues in Congress describe his devout Christianity as one of the first traits they notice when they meet him. During interviews, Johnson has faced criticism from left-leaning journalists for his usage solely of evidence from Christian authors or the Bible, rather than work written by Jewish or Muslim authors, for
example. In response, he claims that those religions are not as “censored” as Christianity in journalism.
Throughout his career—first as a lawyer with the conservative Christian group Alliance Defending Freedom, then as a representative in the Louisiana and U.S. House of Representatives—Johnson has supported abortion bans, criminalized same-sex marriage and sexual activity, and was an extremely vocal supporter of the claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump. According to a New York Times article about Johnson’s rise to becoming Speaker, throughout his time in politics, he has described abortions as “a Holocaust’’ and has claimed that events in the LGBTQ+ community, such as the Day of Silence have “ulterior motives” to harbor “sexual tolerance and understanding” and “glamorize homosexual behavior.” Additionally, he wrote that “homosexual marriage is the dark harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy that could doom even the strongest republic” in 2004, during his time as a conservative writer. Johnson has continued to spew baseless conspiracy theories regarding the 2020 election and spearheaded Republican lawmakers to throw out some of Joe Biden’s electoral college votes. The New York Times described him as the most influential lawmaker in the fight to challenge the Electoral College votes, a huge loss for the country at a time when less than 60% of Americans trust the current election system.
Johnson’s election to the highest seat in Congress has sent shockwaves throughout Washington, D.C., and the nation. Johnson in power will severely maim growing support for LGBTQ+ rights and abortion access and could see an increase in election-related challenges in the coming months. For now, Americans must get used to their new House Speaker and the profound changes this may make to American democracy.
This article also appears in our November 2023 print edition.
