Speaker Mike Johnson had a difficult week. He is facing a revolt from one of the most conservative members of his caucus that could cost him his job. The prospect of providing additional aid to Ukraine continues to meet opposition. And it took three tries for the House to renew a warrantless surveillance bill. Then,…
The roots of the Republican crackup this fall that paralyzed the House, fueled the unexpected rise of Speaker Mike Johnson and now threatens to force a government shutdown crisis early next year lie in a fateful choice the party made more than a decade ago that has come back to haunt its leaders. In early…
Just weeks into his new job, Speaker Mike Johnson has already learned a valuable, if painful, lesson: Being an uncompromising conservative hard-liner is much easier from the backbenches of the House than it is from the leadership suites. The stopgap spending bill he pushed through the House on Tuesday with overwhelming support from Democrats over…
An employee of the hospital where Ms. Daniels was being treated urged Ms. Stelly to call Mr. Benton and Mr. Johnson for help, advising that they were “Christians, both of them, and they are so against abortion clinics,” Ms. Stelly recalled in an interview. The lawyers soon drove to the hospital to see her, and…
The decision by Mike Pence to end his presidential campaign on Saturday was a bow to what had finally become inevitable. He was struggling to raise money, win support from the party’s base and manage the torments from the man who had made him nationally famous, Donald J. Trump. But the root of his campaign’s…
In the moments before he was to face a vote on becoming speaker of the House this week, Representative Mike Johnson posted a photograph on social media of the inscription carved into marble atop the chamber’s rostrum: “In God We Trust.” His colleagues celebrated his candidacy by circulating an image of him on bended knee…
Republicans didn’t have a speaker for 40 years until Newt Gingrich finally reclaimed the gavel for the party in 1995 after decades in the wilderness. But hanging on to it has proved extremely challenging for Republicans in the years since — a potential object lesson for incoming Speaker Mike Johnson. From Newt Gingrich to John…
House Republicans chose and then quickly repudiated yet another of their nominees for speaker on Tuesday and rushed to name a fourth, pressing to put an end to a remarkable three-week-long deadlock that has left Congress leaderless and paralyzed. Representative Mike Johnson, a little-known social conservative from Louisiana, emerged on Tuesday night as the latest…
Former Vice President Mike Pence capped his first full day as a formally declared presidential candidate with a CNN town hall on Wednesday night in Iowa, casting himself as an experienced, traditional conservative. But his challenges in a Republican primary field dominated by former President Donald J. Trump were evident throughout the roughly 90-minute event.…
Mike Pence is the most conservative candidate competing for the presidency. The former vice president wants abortion banned from the point of conception. He’s the only major candidate calling for cuts to Social Security and Medicare. And he has the most hawkish foreign policy, especially on confronting Russia. Being the most conservative used to matter…