Mike Johnson

James Michael Johnson (born January 30, 1972) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the 56th speaker of the United States House of Representatives since 2023. A member of the Republican Party, he is in his fifth House term, having represented Louisiana's 4th congressional district since 2017.

Johnson is a graduate of the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University. Before entering politics, he worked as an attorney in private practice and for the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a conservative Christian legal advocacy group. Johnson sat on the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention between 2004 and 2012.

Johnson's political career began when he was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives in 2015; he served in that body until 2017. He was first elected to represent Louisiana's 4th congressional district in 2016. During his time in Congress, he contested the results of the 2020 presidential election on the House floor and in court. A social conservative, Johnson supported bills to ban abortion nationwide. Johnson chaired the Republican Study Committee, the largest caucus of conservatives in Congress, from 2019 to 2021. He was vice chair of the House Republican Conference from 2021 to 2023.

On October 25, 2023, after Kevin McCarthy was ousted as speaker of the House, Johnson was elected to replace him. He was narrowly reelected to a full term as speaker in 2025.

James Michael Johnson was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, the eldest of four children to Jeanne Johnson and James Patrick "Pat" Johnson (1953–2016). They divorced after 23 years of marriage. In 1984, Pat was severely injured in a Shreveport fire that killed a fellow firefighter. He later became a HazMat consultant.

Johnson is a graduate of Captain Shreve High School in Shreveport. In 1995, he earned a Bachelor of Science in business administration from Louisiana State University, becoming a first-generation college graduate. In 1998, Johnson graduated from Louisiana State's Paul M. Hebert Law Center with a Juris Doctor degree.

Johnson was a constitutional lawyer before entering politics. From 2002 to 2010, he was an attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund, now known as the Alliance Defending Freedom, a socially conservative legal advocacy group that subscribes to the legal theory of constitutionalism. In 2004, he defended Louisiana Amendment 1, which defined marriage as between one man and one woman within the Louisiana Constitution, against legal challenges.

In August 2010, Johnson was named the "founding dean" of the newly established Pressler School of Law at Louisiana College. The law school never opened, and Johnson resigned in August 2012. Joe Aguillard, accused by a university vice president of misappropriating money and lying to the board, blamed Johnson's resignation for the law school's failure. The college soon terminated Aguillard, as it was determined he "engaged in numerous improprieties and falsities in his representations not only to school donors, but to the Board of Trustees". The parent college has since been embroiled in administrative and legal problems.