Who’s Mike Johnson? New U.S. Home speaker belongs to GOP’s spiritual conservative wing

Earlier than a comparatively brief time in elected workplace, new U.S. Home Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana was a constitutional lawyer deeply concerned in spiritual causes.

Previous to a brief stint within the Louisiana Legislature, Johnson spent twenty years as a public curiosity lawyer primarily representing shoppers in so-called spiritual liberty litigation, he mentioned in an interview with C-SPAN shortly after becoming a member of Congress in 2017. He labored in non-public apply for the Kitchens Regulation Agency in North Louisiana, and in addition did work for the conservative Christian group Alliance Defending Freedom, in accordance with a 2015 article within the New Orleans Time-Picayune.

He additionally “litigated excessive profile constitutional regulation instances” defending Second Modification rights, free speech and free market rules, in accordance with his marketing campaign web site.

Home Republicans’ selection of Johnson addressed two faults some members of the convention discovered with a earlier speaker-designee who dropped out on Tuesday, Minnesota’s Tom Emmer.

Emmer voted to certify the 2020 presidential election, placing him at odds with former President Donald Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 presidential nomination, and for a invoice codifying same-sex and interracial marriage. Johnson was on the opposite aspect of each votes.

The Louisianan was a powerful backer of Trump’s claims that his reelection loss in 2020 was illegitimate. He led 126 Home Republicans in an amicus transient to the U.S. Supreme Court docket in a case in search of to overturn Trump’s loss to Joe Biden in that election.

And Johnson voted to object to the 2020 election outcomes from Arizona and Pennsylvania, even after a pro-Trump mob attacked the U.S. Capitol.

In Congress, Johnson has maintained a status as an opponent of abortion rights and same-sex marriage. He has an ‘A+’ score from the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony Record within the final two classes of Congress and a 100% score for the present 12 months from FRC Motion, the legislative arm of the influential evangelical group Household Analysis Council.

The League of Conservation Voters, an environmental advocacy group, has given him a 2% lifetime score, decrease than all however 24 present Home members, all Republicans.

He’s obtained $338,000 in marketing campaign contributions to his private marketing campaign and management committee since 2015 from oil and gasoline pursuits influential in Louisiana — essentially the most of any trade, in accordance with Open Secrets and techniques, a nonprofit marketing campaign finance monitoring group.

He’s additionally maintained ties to non secular conservatives after coming to Washington.

He taught on-line school programs at Liberty College, a conservative Christian faculty in Virginia, incomes him simply lower than $30,000 in 2022, in accordance with his most up-to-date private monetary disclosure, required for members of Congress.

His spouse earned earnings in 2022 from Onward Christian Training Companies Inc. and Louisiana Proper to Life Academic Committee Inc., in accordance with his monetary disclosure.

Johnson’s voting file is strongly conservative, and he has little file of working throughout the aisle. He voted in opposition to high-profile bipartisan legal guidelines, together with the $1.2 trillion infrastructure regulation, a gun security regulation and a reauthorization of the Violence In opposition to Ladies Act.

Fundraising hole

Johnson’s marketing campaign fundraising operation has elevated by small margins in every cycle since his first Home run in 2016. He raised $1.1 million for his first run and over $1.3 million for his most up-to-date reelection, in accordance with Open Secrets and techniques. The numbers embrace cash raised for Johnson’s management political motion committees.

A part of a speaker’s position in fashionable occasions has been as a fundraising power for rank-and-file members. Johnson should broaden his fundraising to interchange the prolific Kevin McCarthy, whom eight GOP members ousted three weeks in the past.

McCarthy, of California, has raised greater than $15 million to this point this cycle for his personal marketing campaign and his management committee. Emmer, the No. 3 Home Republican, has raised $3.7 million. Johnson has raised simply lower than $600,000.

The biggest single contributor to Johnson and his management PACs over his 5 campaigns has been Willis-Knighton Well being System, a hospital system based mostly in Shreveport whose staff have given $91,000 to Johnson’s campaigns.

Home Freedom Fund, the political motion committee related to the far-right Home Freedom Caucus, is his second-largest contributor. It has despatched $58,000 to Johnson for the reason that 2016 cycle.

A spokesperson for his Home workplace didn’t reply to an inquiry about whom Johnson represented as an legal professional.

Johnson’s authorized work doesn’t seem to have been overly worthwhile. He claimed no belongings in his most up-to-date monetary disclosure, which is uncommon.

Home members are required to report any belongings value greater than $1,000. These belongings can embrace actual property, retirement accounts, funding portfolios or easy financial savings accounts. Many members report tens of millions of {dollars} in such belongings.

Johnson listed between $280,000 and $600,000 in liabilities, most of which was from a house mortgage of between $250,000 and $500,000. The remainder of his debt was break up between a private mortgage taken out in July 2016 and a house fairness line of credit score taken out in February 2019.

Ariana Figueroa and Ashley Murray contributed to this report.