The Latest Breaking News from Steve Scalise

Republicans hope electing Johnson will unite their fractious majority and end weeks of chaos by elevating a little-known conservative to one of the highest seats of U.S. power.

All Texas Republicans in the U.S. House voted for Louisiana’s Mike Johnson to be speaker, ending a stalemate that has left the chamber leaderless for three weeks. Johnson is a deeply religious conservative who won the support of the party’s disparate factions.

Almost every aspect of current Republican Party politics defies historical precedent and obvious logic. Even in the House of Representatives, where, traditionally, a save-our-jobs mentality has always maintained a relative stability, Congressional Republicans, over the past several weeks, have publicly broken down in comic and operatic ways.

The boos and cheers said it all during the vote for Mike Johnson, whose first speech as speaker was much more restrained.