Tony Marks / Ville Platte Gazette
Coming off an election in November where he received 60% of the vote is U.S. Representative Mike Johnson who represents the 4th Congressional District of Louisiana. In route to his win over three other candidates, he received 70% of the vote in both Evangeline and Allen parishes and 54% of the vote in St. Landry Parish.
“It’s a great honor to represent the people of the 4th District,” Johnson said. “We worked really hard, and we’re grateful to have been recognized by the folks. We won by a pretty sizable margin, and that’s a great affirmation of faith for us.”
Since his re-election, Johnson was elected vice president of the House Republicans. Fellow Republican congressman from Louisiana, Steve Scalise, also remains the Republican Whip, which is the number two leadership position.
“We think this is the first time in history that we have two members from Louisiana in the top leadership posts at the same time,” said Congressman Johnson. “It’s going to be a good thing for the district and the state.”
Johnson conceded the Republicans will be in the minority in the next Congress but remains hopeful because of a slim Democratic majority. “We hope and believe there is a lot we can get done,” he said. “Of course, we are also going to have to play defense a lot to prevent the Democrats’ radical agenda from becoming law, but we do hope there is an opportunity for bipartisanship to try to work together to solve some of these great challenges that face the country. We’ll have our work cut out for us, but we’re looking forward to it.”
During the last two years, Johnson served as chairman of the Republican Study Committee that came up with what he called “real substantive policy proposals.” Those proposals have been published in the conservative playbook for a Republican-led Congress.
Johnson said this next Congress will look to implement some of those specific ideas that deal with issues ranging from health care to infrastructure.
When it comes to infrastructure in the district, Johnson is targeting improved broadband access. “We have a lot of rural areas in our 15 parishes that don’t have a lot of internet access,” he said. “The problem, of course, was highlighted during the coronavirus pandemic because the school children, for example, were all sitting home, and many of them didn’t have reliable internet and couldn’t get online to do their work. They had to travel to libraries and all of that, so it’s a real hardship for a lot of people.”
“That is a big priority when we talk about infrastructure spending,” he continued. “Rural broadband has to be a priority. President Donald Trump had committed to do another package on that in the first part of 2021 if he was re-elected. We hope President-elect Joe Biden, if that’s the way this plays out, will have that same commitment. I think we can get bipartisan votes because everyone recognizes how important this issue is.”
Johnson is playing a role in assisting and advising President Trump’s legal team. He stated, “There clearly is a lot of evidence of fraud and irregularities in many places around the country. The challenge is getting all of that evidence assembled and presented in a court where they can act upon it and do the right thing. You have to have a substantial amount of fraud that is broad based in order to overturn an election result. It’s a challenge to get that done.”
The congressman believes the American people has a real desire to sort everything out.
Even if the results are not overturned, Johnson said, “We have to root out and prosecute the fraud. We have to convince the American people that our system is fair. If it’s not, then people will lose interest and not vote anymore. That’s a real threat to our constitutional republic.”
He went on to say, “I’ve encouraged the president over and over to continue to exhaust every remedy because we owe that to the American people.”
Johnson sees the presidential election going to the House of Representatives only as an extreme measure. “I would like it to,” he said, “but I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think it will be resolved prior to the deadlines in January. If it did come to the House floor, it would be a very interesting development because the Republicans have the majority of state delegations, and Donald Trump would be re-elected by the House.”
Even with the highly contested presidential election and the challenges of this year, Johnson is hopeful for what the new year and beyond have in store. “We’re optimistic about the vaccine coming online and changing our fortunes with the coronavirus. As for the Republican Party in the House, there is a lot of excitement. In spite of what the mainstream media would like to tell everybody, we had a strong election cycle. We feel like we are positioned very well for a strong midterm election cycle in 2022. We expect a red tsunami.”
He concluded, “We think our best days are ahead of us, and we’re going to keep fighting.”