The House is set to reelect Speaker Mike Johnson Jan 3. But could Emmer emerge as 2nd contender?

Sydney Kashiwagi, Star Tribune on Dec 23, 2024

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

The U.S. House of Representatives will decide Jan. 3 whether to reelect Speaker Mike Johnson to the top GOP job after he faced a contentious vote to avert a government shutdown at the last-minute last week, leaving some Republicans skeptical of his prospects heading into the vote.

All of Minnesota’s four Republican members of Congress say they plan to back Johnson, including Rep. Tom Emmer, the House majority whip and No. 3 Republican in the House, who came close to becoming speaker before Johnson clinched the role last year.

“Whip Emmer supports Speaker Johnson and is focused on doing the job he was elected to do,” a spokesperson for Emmer said when asked if he plans to support Johnson and if he would be interested in running for the role himself if Johnson loses support.

President-elect Donald Trump and his allies sent Johnson scrambling last week to put together a new plan to avoid a government shutdown after he had worked with Democrats on an initial agreement with bipartisan support. In that chaos, some Republicans reportedly said Emmer and other lawmakers were being floated as possible contenders for speaker.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said over the weekend that Johnson is at risk of losing his speakership post and that there will be “no Democrats available to save him” on Jan. 3, following the speaker’s decision to move away from the bipartisan bill. DFL Reps. Ilhan Omar and Angie Craig have said they plan to back Jeffries for speaker instead.

With a slim 219-215 GOP majority, Johnson can only risk losing one Republican vote to get reelected to the role with a majority of 218 votes if all Democrats vote against him. So far, at least one Republican lawmaker, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., has said he will not back Johnson, and other Republicans have indicated they are still undecided.

“I believe Johnson will prevail — but not without making promises that won’t be able to be kept,” outgoing DFL Rep. Dean Phillips, who is leaving his seat Jan. 2 and will not be voting, said in a text.

“Tom Emmer is broadly respected among a diverse array of his conference, and I foresee a race between him and (House Majority Leader) Steve Scalise should Mike Johnson find himself unable to secure 218 votes,” Phillips continued.

Emmer emerged as contender for speaker last year after a group of Republicans ousted former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. However, Emmer eventually dropped out of the race after Trump and his allies spoke out against his bid on social media

But Emmer and Trump have since grown close. Emmer secured a prime time spot defending the president-elect during the Republican National Convention, and he spent election night with Trump in Florida.

Though Trump is now close to Emmer, the president-elect has also previously said he’s with Johnson “all the way.” Prior to the government shutdown dispute last week, Republicans had appeared unified after Trump’s victory in the Nov. 5 election. Johnson, Scalise and Emmer were all easily reelected to their jobs during the November leadership elections.

_____