An election denier who opposes abortion rights: Meet the new US House speaker

Key PointsJohnson will be the least experienced House speaker in decades.Biden has congratulated Johnson and vowed to work with him.Democrats have blasted Johnson’s conservative stances on issues like abortion and same-sex marriage.

US Representative Mike Johnson has been elected by his fellow Republicans to serve as speaker of the House of Representatives, after

.

Here are five facts about the fourth-term conservative lawmaker who is now the top Republican in Congress:

A life-long conservative

Johnson, 51, was born in Shreveport, Louisiana’s third largest city, the oldest of four siblings and the son of a firefighter who was badly burned and disabled in the line of duty.

Prior to Congress, Johnson was a lawyer who mainly worked on religious freedom issues, successfully defending Louisiana’s same-sex marriage ban in 2004.

“I am a Christian, a husband, a father, a life-long conservative, constitutional law attorney and a small business owner in that order,” he told the Louisiana Baptist Message newspaper in 2016.

He was elected to the Louisiana statehouse in 2015 and ran for Congress successfully in 2016. He now represents Louisiana’s fourth congressional district, which occupies the northwestern corner of the state and includes his hometown of Shreveport.

Opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion rights

Johnson has supported legislation that bars gender-related surgery and hormone treatment for transgender teens, prohibits mask mandates on aeroplanes, and tightens immigration and abortion restrictions.

He opposes same-sex marriage and introduced a bill in 2022 that would have banned US schools from promoting or discussing gender identity.

He opposes abortion rights, calling the

a “great, joyous occasion.”

Opposition to Ukraine aid

Johnson is opposed to sending Ukraine aid to fight back

. He received an F from the advocacy group Republicans for Ukraine, which compiles a report card for lawmakers on their support.

He will have to respond to Democratic President Joe Biden’s

for aid to Israel, Ukraine and US border security. While House Republicans broadly support funding for Israel and the US border, they are divided over further support for Ukraine.

Biden urged Johnson to move quickly on the funding package. “Even though we have real disagreements about important issues, there should be mutual effort to find common ground wherever we can,” he said in a statement.

As speaker, Mike Johnson will have to confront the same challenges that felled Kevin McCarthy and stymied his would-be successors. Source: Getty / Saul Loeb

No leadership experience

Johnson served as chair of the conservative Republican Study Committee and was elected vice-chair of the conference, but otherwise has no leadership experience — a potential hindrance as he enters into negotiations with the Democratic-controlled Senate and the White House.

He also has so far shown limited fundraising ability, typically a key part of the speaker’s role.

Trump supporter

Johnson is an avowed supporter of Trump, and was the ringleader of the more than 100 Republicans who signed a legal brief supporting a lawsuit seeking to

.

Johnson was asked late on Tuesday about the filing, which the Supreme Court declined to adjudicate, but he merely replied “next question” as his colleagues began jeering.

“I haven’t heard one negative comment about him. Everybody likes him, he’s respected by all … somebody that’s going to be really spectacular and maybe for many years to come,” Trump said ahead of the vote.

Biden congratulated Johnson and vowed to work with him, adding that the United States now needed “to move swiftly to address our national security needs and to avoid a shutdown.”

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