By Jerald Jimenez
25 Oct 2023, 1:28 PM EDT
Republican Congressman Mike Johnson, who has the support of former President Donald Trump, faces the plenary session of the US House of Representatives this Wednesday to try to become its new president, after the failure of three other candidates from his party .
Johnson, who represents the state of Louisiana, was one of Trump’s most loyal defenders when he tried to prevent the confirmation of Democrat Joe Biden’s electoral victory in 2020 with unfounded accusations of fraud.
The position of president of the Lower House, known as “speaker”, has been vacant since Republican Kevin McCarthy was dismissed on October 3 due to a rebellion by the most radical sector of his party.
Since then, Republicans have nominated three other candidates: Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan and Tom Emmer, but none have achieved the necessary consensus among the different factions of the party.
Scalise withdrew before the vote due to lack of support, Jordan lost three times in the plenary session due to the rejection of moderates and Emmer resigned this Tuesday just four hours after being nominated because he did not have the support of Trump’s followers.
The election of the new “speaker” is crucial to unblock legislative activity in the Lower House, where the Republicans have a slim majority of 221 seats compared to the Democrats’ 212.
The new presidency of the House must be formalized so that resolutions and new bills can be approved on issues of interest to the country.
Among the pending issues are the approval of new military aid for Ukraine and Israel or the negotiation of the budget for the current fiscal year.