Republican Mike Johnson survived a razor-thin vote to remain House speaker in a dramatic, highly anticipated vote that marked the beginning of full Republican control in Washington.

Johnson could only afford to lose by two votes because of Republicans’ narrow margin of control in Congress. Although he almost lost re-election, he survived the vote after some lobbying.

President-elect Donald Trump had previously endorsed Johnson for the role of House speaker, saying, “A win for Mike today would be a huge win for the Republican Party.”

The Speaker of the House of Representatives is one of the most powerful positions in Washington. He controls the lower chamber of the US Congress and is second in line to the presidency after the vice president.

Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, was supported by nearly all Republicans in his bid for re-election.

But this success was not without controversy.

To be elected speaker, a candidate must receive the support of a majority of the House of Representatives – 218 votes. However, due to the Republicans’ razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives, Johnson was only able to endure opposition from two Republicans.

Johnson had already faced a hard “no” from Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky.

“You can rip out all my fingernails. You can push bamboo in it. You can start cutting off my fingers. “I’m not going to vote for Mike Johnson,” Massie said in a television interview on Thursday.

Several other Republicans had entered the “undecided” category before the vote.

In the early votes, three of those undecided Republicans voted for other lawmakers instead of Johnson, preventing him from reaching the 218 votes he needed.

Three lawmakers — Massie, Congressman Ralph Norman of South Carolina and Congressman Keith Self of Texas — offered other options for the role of the next speaker.

That led to Johnson fleeing the House of Representatives and lobbyists supporting him. He returned to the House chamber about 45 minutes later.

Both Norman and Self changed their votes to support Johnson.

The gavel struck and Johnson won re-election.

Norman told reporters after the election that he changed his vote after speaking with Johnson in a room outside the House of Representatives.

He said Johnson told him that there would be more conservatives at the table during negotiations, that fewer deals would be made between congressional leadership and committees without input from other outside lawmakers, and that there would be enough time to read the text of the law before voting was scheduled.

“As we walked out of that little room, he convinced me and Keith (Self),” Norman said. “He (Johnson) said I will do this, just give me the chance. He knew it and I knew it would get more and more difficult when it came to the second round.”

During the tense speaker election, another player intervened: President-elect Donald Trump.

Norman spoke to Trump twice during the speaker’s vote.

The first time was when fellow Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina handed him her phone to speak to the president-elect. The second time occurred at a meeting with Johnson, Self and several others.

“(Trump) is just as excited,” Norman said of the phone call with the president-elect. “He said, ‘Norman, we have the greatest chance we’ve ever had – the House, the Senate, a trifecta, you won’t get that chance.’ I said, “Mr. President, I agree with you, I just hope Mike has the courage to go through with this.”

Norman said the president-elect also said Johnson was the only one who had the sympathy to win the speaker’s election.

He himself told reporters after the vote that he had spoken to Trump before and after the speaker election.

He said he changed his mind when Johnson promised that more members, including from the far-right House Freedom Caucus, would be at the negotiating table.

“We have strengthened the reconciliation team because we know that it will be a difficult task to get to the heart of the Trump agenda on the reconciliation line,” he said.

Friday was the first day of the 119th Congress. Republicans have unified control of Washington, with majorities in both the House and Senate and with Trump returning to the White House later in January.

In his acceptance speech, Johnson said this Congress would champion the idea of ​​“America first,” a slogan promoted by Trump.

After Trump’s re-election, Americans are demanding that their interests be put first again, he said.

“And we will,” Johnson said.

The election of a new speaker is the first requirement of the new session of Congress, and without this chairman the chamber cannot assume any other function.

This has led to chaos in the past – including when former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had to go through 15 rounds of votes before being confirmed to the leadership post.

Minutes before Friday’s vote, Johnson posted on X several of his plans for if he were elected.

He promised to create a “working group of independent experts” to work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which Trump appointed Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Republican Vivek Ramaswamy to lead.

That working group, he said, will review existing audits of federal agencies and facilities established by Congress and issue a report.

“If we want to restore fiscal responsibility, we must start by being transparent about the dollars we spend, address the problems we find, and then hold accountable those who misspent funds,” Johnson wrote.