The House was left leaderless after a majority of those present voted to remove the previous Speaker, Kevin McCarthy. Then, no clear frontrunner emerged to succeed him. A number of men put their names forward and garnered significant support, but each failed to get the needed majority of votes when the vote came to the House floor. Those who tried but did not succeed were, in order, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, Jim Jordan of Ohio, and Tom Emmer of Minnesota. Each of those men had gained what they thought was enough support in a preliminary closed-door meeting of Republicans, who hold the majority in the House; however, each time, a full vote on the House floor resulted in a number of Yes votes that was smaller than needed.

In the end, Johnson got that number. His tally, of votes in favor of his being Speaker, was 220. That was the total number of Republicans who were present and voting at the time of the vote. All 209 Democrats present voted for Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries, as they had done throughout the process.

So now Johnson takes over as Speaker of the House. Among his most immediate tasks will be finding a way to avert a government shutdown, which is looming on November 17 in light of the expiration of a continuing resolution that Congress passed in order to avoid an earlier shutdown. It was McCarthy's support for that resolution–in effect, working with the Democratic leadership of the House–that triggered the process that resulted in his ouster.

Also expected to be a major contentious issue is the matter of aid to Israel and Ukraine, which many Republicans have staunchly opposed.