There has never been a Speaker of the House from Louisiana.
Jerrie LeDoux, community liaison for U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, was the guest speaker Wednesday at the Eunice Rotary Club.
LeDoux said on October 25, this date did a major reset on the life of Congressman Mike Johnson, and, “I guarantee at that time he was probably the most Googled politician that is serving today.”
She said, “He came out of nowhere … we were laughing because so many senators said, ‘I don’t know who he is. And some of the Republicans on the other side of the aisle said, I never seen or heard of him.’”
Johnson went to Washington, D.C., in 2017. She said, “… our office was two storage rooms that were cleaned out and you had to walk out into the hallway and into the second storage room to meet with the rest of the staff. We were not even in the same physical office space.”
Johnson has been in Eunice a number of different times, and, “What you see is what he is,” said LeDoux.
Johnson is 51 years-old. He was born in Shreveport. His parents dropped out of school. His dad became a firefighter.
When the speaker was about 10 or 11 years old, his father was involved in an explosion and was burned over 80 percent of his body. They were a family of modest means.
Johnson went on to attend LSU Law School and did 20 years in non-profit legislation defending First Amendment rights and freedom of religion issues.
Johnson is married to Kelly and they have four children. Johnson was the first person in his family to go to college.
LeDoux said, “People found out some things that they did not like about Congressman Johnson. We had hundreds of calls from people outside of the state ranting. First of all, they do not like that Congressman Johnson is an unashamed Christian who gives his world view from the Bible.”
She added, “They lost their minds when they found out that he still has a mortgage on his home and did not have enough assets to trigger the mandatory financial reporting tools. He was not hiding anything.”
Johnson has actually been a professor online for a university for the past four years supplementing his income because he has two children in college.
LeDoux said, “He is a man of very modest means.”
The speaker and the personal office is split. He is representing 600,000 people in the Fourth congressional district.
“We still come to Eunice, Sunset, Ville Platte, and all the communities in our area, and we also help our constituents with their needs with federal agencies,” she said.
The speaker employs about 40 people. “We had 15 or 16 people we were working with and now he will have a staff of 40. We will still have our 13 people in the district,” she said.
His office will now be inside the capital building and it is four-stories tall unlike the storeroom he started in, she said.
There are dignitary rooms and there are press rooms at the speaker’s office. Johnson will still be sleeping at his office, she said. He doesn’t have a house or rent in Washington. For the past six years, he flew back and forth to be with his family every weekend, she said.
LeDoux explained, as speaker, Johnson is the most visible and spokesperson for the majority party. He will also oversee committee assignments and help structure floor debates.
Johnson will no longer sit on the Armed Services or Judiciary committees. He is the head of the House Rules Committee. LeDoux said, “That is one of the most complex things that happens. You have 430 members of Congress and they all have agendas and ideas and you have to organize these actions in a way that is fair.”
The speaker manages the business on the floor and he navigates legislature rules.
He is actually the mayor-type person over the whole House, she said. “So this means the speaker of the House decides what is sold inside the cafeteria, what companies get to sell at kiosks, what type and kind of toilet tissue to buy. They are over the entire Library of Congress. They are over Capitol police, dry cleaning services, all of the accounting functions fall under the umbrella of the speaker of the House.”
One of the things, Johnson had to do, was visit with the president. Johnson wanted Congress to take up a $106 billion aid package that included Israel and Ukraine.
He chose to segregate all of the funding to make sure they had accountability where they get this money, she said.
LeDoux added, “He can stand his ground. He can do what he needs to do. With Louisiana having a speaker of the House and a majority leader I would say our state is probably punching above its weight limit now, and I think good days are ahead.”
