John, House Republicans just chose their election denial ringleader to be Speaker. Common Cause is ready to stand vigilant about whatever's next – but we'll need your help.
You might not have heard of Representative (and now Speaker) Mike Johnson (R-LA) before – but you should know that he was a key architect of Donald Trump's plot to steal the 2020 election, which he lost.
And leading up to January 6th, Johnson launched a plot to toss out millions of mail-in ballots, based on the same legal theory that the Supreme Court just rejected in our Moore v. Harper victory last summer. [1]
Now, a man who already tried to overturn our votes will be third in line for the presidency – and empowered to use the House's full authority to push his anti-voter agenda. Add your name to tell Speaker Mike Johnson that we’re watching and ready to stop any and all anti-democracy schemes he pushes.
It's no secret that House Republicans have let themselves be led around by their most extreme members – like Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene. But sometimes, it's less bombastic figures like Johnson who end up doing much more harm to our democracy.
He was an early and active supporter of Trump’s scheme to overturn the 2020 election results. Just two weeks after the 2020 election, Johnson openly claimed:
"You know the allegations about these voting machines, some of them being rigged with this software by Dominion, there's a lot of merit to that. And when the President says the election was rigged, that's what he was talking about.” [2]
And soon after, he backed up these words with actions – working directly with Trump to recruit 125 House Republicans to sign on to their efforts. [3]
The truth is, Mike Johnson has a proven track record of being on the wrong side of voting and democracy issues. Just last year, he earned one of the lowest scores on our Democracy Scorecard – so we must be prepared to push back against any anti-voter measures he throws our way. [4]
One of the GOP's top legislative priorities that we anticipate coming up is the so-called "ACE Act" – a far-right wishlist of voter suppression measures fueled by the same Big Lie that Trump deployed in his desperate bid to cling to power – and that Rep. Mike Johnson tried to constitutionally validate.
This vote should be a wake-up call – can I count on your action to hold Mike Johnson accountable and push back against ANY Republican voter suppression measures between now and 2024?
Thanks for all you do,
Aaron Scherb, Senior Director of Legislative Affairs
and the team at Common Cause
[1] https://twitter.com/RepMikeJohnson/status/1337213095077433355
[2] https://twitter.com/AccountableGOP/status/1717202704378761264
[3] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/25/who-is-mike-johnson-republican-2020-election
[4] https://democracyscorecard.org/district/la-04/
