“Mike has natural skills in communication. His ability to learn will enable him to move very fast,” Lucas said. When asked whether the fall of McCarthy, and the rise of an even more socially conservative speaker, demonstrated increased power of the hard-right flank of the party, Lucas demurred. “This is a body of individuals, and it’s become more individualistic in the last 20 years. But it’s still a team sport,” Lucas said. “If you burn the building down, you have an obligation to build the next one up.”
Indeed, that factionalization had proved the downfall of previous speaker candidates, including Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Majority Whip Tom Emmer. Scalise was too entrenched in the party establishment for certain Republican hard-liners. House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, who suffered through three losing speaker votes on the House floor, was too much of a rabble-rouser for Republicans with an institutionalist bent. Emmer was personally opposed by former President Donald Trump, in no small part because he voted to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Johnson, meanwhile, is a member of leadership—he’s the vice chair of the Republican conference and was previously the chair of the conservative Republican Study Committee—but has only been a member of the House since 2016. He’s deeply conservative, supportive of restrictions for abortion and rights for LGBTQ individuals, and has voted against several major bipartisan bills in recent years. Nonetheless, his amicable persona is far more appealing than Jordan’s penchant for bomb-throwing.