A whiplash-inducing scramble to replace the U.S. House Speaker started and ended with Louisiana this month. While Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) dropped out of the race, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) ultimately nabbed the position Wednesday.
That’s good news for Louisiana, according to Guy Williams, president of Gulf Bank and Trust.
“When the speaker is from your state, magic occurs,” he told WWL’s Newell Normand. “Federal agencies suddenly want to do more in your state, more conferences, more investment, more flexibility. It’s just better for the state if the speaker is from your state.”
Nearly three weeks ago, the GOP ousted Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from the speaker position. This move was pushed by a small faction of the party known as the Freedom Caucus.
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Scalise – who is undergoing cancer treatment – became the first contender to replace McCarthy but failed to get enough votes and dropped out of the race.
“It really is unfortunate,” said Williams of Scalise’s short-lived bid for the position. “I mean, I’ve known Steve for years, and one of the things I like about him is he’s not a firebrand, he’s a conciliator. He listens to reason, he gets along.”
His bid was followed by Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, a co-founder of the Freedom Caucus. Jordan failed three times to secure enough votes, losing more members of his own party each time, and the GOP eventually voted not to have him as the nominee. Republicans then selected Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota as their next nominee, but he dropped out of the race Tuesday.
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While there was no speaker, the House was not able to vote on key issues like funding to help Ukraine fight off a Russian invasion and to help Israel in its war with the Hamas terrorist organization. With Johnson in, concerns about the looming budget deadline next month also eased somewhat.
However, budget issues were cited by hard-right members of the party such as Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), as a reason for getting McCarthy removed.
Even with a speaker in place, the U.S. has been on the brink of a government shutdown due to the budget issues recently.
According to Johnson’s website, he was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in December 2016, “by the largest margin of victory in his region in more than 50 years and is currently serving his fourth term in Congress.”
In 2021 he was elected by his colleagues to serve as Vice Chairman of the House Republican Conference, one of the seven elected leadership positions for Republicans in the House. Last year he was unanimously re-elected to serve another term.
“In this leadership role, Mike helps guide his Republican colleagues to fight for core conservative principles and policies,” said his site. “Mike also serves as a Deputy Whip for the 118th Congress, to help implement the Republican agenda. He was previously honored to serve as chairman of the Republican Study Committee, the largest caucus of conservatives in Congress, known as ‘the intellectual arsenal of conservatism in the House.’”
Johnson also has two decades of experience in Constitutional law and serves on the House Judiciary Committee.
Now that Johnson is speaker, there’s a lot of work ahead. This includes fundraising for the party.
“That’s a big deal. And it’s one of the reasons that ‘Team D’ is happy to see this chaos ensue because McCarthy was a great fundraiser and he raised money for all sorts of Republican candidates,” Williams explained. So, you effectively have your star player on the bench.”
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Williams also discussed the latest on the United Auto Workers strike, the fed losing control of long-term interest rates, and the latest fraud to watch out for with Normand. Listen to their full talk here.