Lawler Votes for Johnson; Latimer Votes for Jeffries
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, left, with Congressman Mike Lawler, on a visit to Westchester last year.
By Dan Murphy
Republican Congressman Mike Johnson was reelected Speaker of the House on Friday Jan. 3. Speaker Johnson received 218 votes, while democratic Congressman Hakeem Jeffires received 215 votes. One republican congressmember did not vote for Johnson, and another House seat is vacant.
Westchester’s two congressman, to nobody’s surprise, voted differently for speaker along party lines. Congressman Mike Lawler voted for Speaker Johnson, while Congressman George Latimer voted for Jeffries, who now becomes Minority Leader of the House.
Rep. Lawler issued the following statement. “I am thrilled that the Republican Conference has re-elected Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House. The American people elected us to work on the issues that matter – lowering costs, securing the border, and putting the American economy back on track – and with Speaker Johnson at the helm, I’m confident we’ll get it done.”
“I look forward to tackling these issues, along with the urgent need to pass the Antisemitism Awareness Act and lift the unfair cap on SALT, in the coming days, weeks, and months. The future is bright – but only if we continue to work together towards it,” said Lawler.
Congressman Lawler is one of the most bipartisan members of the 118th Congress and represents New York’s 17th Congressional District, which is just north of New York City and contains all or parts of Rockland, Putnam, Dutchess, and Westchester Counties.