Speak­er Johnson’s major­i­ty gets rein­force­ments with swear­ing-in of two Flori­da Repub­li­cans

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Speaker Johnson’s majority gets reinforcements with swearing-in of two Florida Republicans

House Speak­er Mike John­son (R‑LA) has sworn in two new mem­bers of the Repub­li­can con­fer­ence, giv­ing him a three-seat major­i­ty ahead of a cru­cial bud­get fight in the com­ing weeks.

Reps. Jim­my Patro­n­is (R‑FL) and Randy Fine (R‑FL) became the lat­est mem­bers of the House just one day after their vic­to­ries in Florida’s spe­cial elec­tions to fill the seats of for­mer Rep. Matt Gaetz and now-Nation­al Secu­ri­ty Advi­sor Mike Waltz. 

“Mr. Speak­er, with the Repub­li­can major­i­ty here in Con­gress, Pres­i­dent Trump and the White House, we’ve got the oppor­tu­ni­ty of a life­time to fix this coun­try so our chil­dren grow up in a nation that’s safe and full of oppor­tu­ni­ties,” Patro­n­is said after being sworn in by John­son. “So, I’m ready to get our fis­cal house in order.”

He con­tin­ued, “For far too long, Amer­i­cans have sent their hard-earned tax dol­lars to Wash­ing­ton with­out real­ly feel­ing they’re get­ting any­thing for it.”

Patro­n­is won in Florida’s 1st Dis­trict with 56.7% of the vote com­pared to Demo­c­rat Gay Valimont’s 42.3%, with 95% of bal­lots count­ed as of Wednes­day evening. Fine, whose race gave Repub­li­cans some heart­burn ahead of Elec­tion Day, won in the 6th Dis­trict with 56.7% to Demo­c­rat Joshua Weil’s 42.7%, with 95% of bal­lots count­ed. 

Repub­li­cans faced a dwin­dling major­i­ty after Gaetz and Waltz resigned from the House, mak­ing Johnson’s job more dif­fi­cult as he has worked to advance Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s agen­da. The GOP con­fer­ence will now hold a 220–213 major­i­ty, with two Demo­c­ra­t­ic vacan­cies due to the deaths of Reps. Sylvester Turn­er (D‑TX) and Raul Gri­jal­va (D‑AZ).

Con­cerns about Repub­li­cans’ thin mar­gins con­tributed to Trump pulling Rep. Elise Stefanik’s (R‑NY) nom­i­na­tion to serve as his U.N. ambas­sador. Trump has not yet named who will take that man­tle instead.

The swear­ing-in of Patro­n­is and Fine comes as Repub­li­cans are try­ing to pass a mas­sive spend­ing bill using a bud­get process known as rec­on­cil­i­a­tion. John­son has set an ambi­tious goal of send­ing the leg­is­la­tion to Trump’s desk by Memo­r­i­al Day.

Sen­ate Repub­li­cans released their blue­print on Wednes­day, mean­ing the House could take up the mea­sure as soon as next week.

Johnson’s nar­row mar­gins also con­tributed to a pro­ce­dur­al step fail­ing on the House floor on Tues­day, lead­ing Repub­li­cans to can­cel votes for the remain­der of the week.

Nine Repub­li­cans joined Democ­rats in block­ing a mea­sure that would allow proxy vot­ing for new par­ents over the objec­tions of John­son.