Before a standing-room-only crowd at Tarrant County Republican party headquarters, Paxton and George said Cook should become Speaker because he won support from the House GOP Cauc

Republican Mike Johnson narrowly won reelection Friday as House speaker on a first ballot, overcoming hard-right GOP holdouts in a tense standoff and buoyed by a nod of support from President-elect Donald Trump.

The speaker election was on track to get deadlocked after a small handful of House Republicans rebelled against Johnson's candidacy, until two holdouts flipped their votes in the final hour

WASHINGTON – House Republicans gave Mike Johnson the speaker's gavel on Friday – along with a warning. Nine GOP lawmakers at first either abstained from voting for Johnson or voted for a different person for speaker.

This time was supposed to be different. But while House Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday avoided the dayslong ordeal that his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, endured to become speaker, his relatively swift victory was hardly a unifying moment.

Speaker Mike Johnson will lead the US House of Representatives after he was re-elected on Friday. Mr Johnson said he wants to make sure they are “jump-starting” the agenda now so US President-elect Donald Trump is ready on day one.

Republican Mike Johnson won reelection to the House speakership on a first ballot, pushing past GOP hard-right holdouts and buoyed with a nod of support from President-elect Donald Trump.