New Speaker Mike Johnson holds favor with conservatives. Can he unite the GOP where o

[admin]

New House Speaker Mike Johnson inherits many of the same problems that bedeviled Republican leaders with far more experience. The Louisiana Republican emerged last week from the lower ranks of the House GOP leadership to ascend to speaker after lawmakers, driven by a faction of hard-liners, ousted Rep. Kevin McCarthy from the job and then rejected two more top-ranked Republicans in leadership as well as conservative favorite Rep. Jim Jordan. To his supporters, Johnson represented a turn to “decentralizing the power” from the speaker’s office, with a goal of cutting government spending and engaging forcefully on socially conservative priorities.