All you need to know about Speaker Mike Johnson

The nation is scrambling to learn more about Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) since House Republicans catapulted him to national prominence Wednesday with his election to an office two heartbeats from the presidency.

The conservative is a bit of an enigma, even to fellow lawmakers. Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), the No. 3 Republican, said he didn’t know Johnson when asked Wednesday. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told a CNN reporter that she would Google him.

Reporters at The Hill have been backgrounding the new Speaker and examining what the House will look like under his leadership. Here’s what they’ve learned.

Start with the basics: Who is Mike Johnson?

He had a meteoric rise to the Speaker’s chair. Here’s how he won.

What challenges will he face as Speaker? Here are five, to start.

His rise has put a spotlight on his role in denying the 2020 election.

One of his first tasks will be figuring out how to handle a potential government shutdown.

The White House has asked Congress to authorize $105 billion in aid to help Ukraine and Israel. Where does Johnson stand on that? Here is what he’s said in the past. On Thursday night, he said he’d like to see the aid package split.

Johnson is staunchly against abortion, and Democrats have seized on that. As chair of the conservative Republican Study Commission, he has backed health care proposals that the GOP has espoused for years, including a repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

His congressional district includes Shreveport, a onetime hub of the oil industry. And Johnson is on the record as a strong proponent of fossil fuels and a skeptic of climate change.

In 2020, Johnson emerged as a key player in former President Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the presidential election. President Biden, though, said he is not concerned about what may happen in 2024, given that background.

In the Speaker race, Johnson had Trump’s backing.