163 Democrats Join Republicans To Save Speaker Johnson After Forced Vote

By FrumNews.com 

Washington, DC — The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to save Speaker Mike Johnson from being ousted.

Despite pushback from fellow Republicans, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) forced the mostly theatrical vote after the Speaker brought the Israel and Ukraine aid bills to vote, which passed last week. 

In all, a remarkable 196 Republicans joined with 163 Democrats to rescue the speaker, who has been serving for a little over six months. Just 11 Republicans and 32 Democrats voted to oust Johnson. (Notably, Rep. Greene didn’t vote to oust McCarthy in October.)

In October 2023, then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy made a last-minute budget deal with Democrats, which GOP hard-liners didn’t agree with. 

McCarthy was later ousted in a vote forced by Rep. Matt Gaetz with eight GOP hard-liners and all Democrats over the budget deal. This led to a monthslong search for a new speaker before finally landing on the virtually unknown Rep. Mike Johnson.

Over time, Johnson earned grudging respect from more centrist conservatives for ensuring that the government didn’t run out of funding as well as sending aid to Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine, but he only did so with Democratic support, infuriating members hardline the Republicans who ousted the previous speaker.

Democrat leaders have said it was time to “turn the page” on the GOP turmoil and vote to block Greene’s resolution. While unconfirmed, part of the spending deal was that Democrats would support Johnson if the deal triggered a vote on ousting the Speaker.

“Our decision to stop Marjorie Taylor Greene from plunging the country into further chaos is rooted in our commitment to solve problems,” Jeffries said after the vote.