U.S. Sen. Susan Collins told a reporter on Wednesday that she planned to Google the man who became the House speaker later in the day.
It highlighted the relative obscurity of incoming House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana, who on Tuesday became the fourth Republican to clinch the party’s nomination for speaker in the three weeks since Kevin McCarthy of California was ousted by a few rogue members of his conference and Democrats. He won the votes to clinch the position on Wednesday afternoon.
Collins made her remarks on Johnson to a CNN reporter, saying she did not know him and planned a Google search later in the day. The Maine senator is the top Republican appropriator in the upper chamber, meaning she works closely with House members on funding bills.
She is not alone in seeking more information on Johnson. While he is already a member of House leadership, the new speaker has only been in Congress since 2017. After he won the nomination on Tuesday, his Google search traffic went from almost nil to near peak popularity.
Three weeks on, the Republicans have been frittering away their majority status in the House. It has also gummed up work in the Senate, where a bipartisan majority wants to send fresh aid packages to Israel and Ukraine. A government shutdown also looms in mid-November.
Refusing to unify, far-right House members would not accept a more traditional speaker and moderate conservatives don’t want a hardliner. While Johnson had no opponents during the private roll call, some two dozen Republicans did not vote, which would be more than enough to sink his nomination in a vote that is expected later Wednesday.
A lawyer specializing in constitutional issues, Johnson coalesced Republicans around former President Donald Trump’s legal effort to overturn the 2020 election results. He rallied members after clinching a higher-than-expected number of nominating votes.
“Democracy is messy sometimes, but it is our system,” Johnson said Tuesday, with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a former speaker candidate who is also from Louisiana, standing behind him. “We’re going to restore your trust in what we do here.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.