Behind Mike Johnson's shocking rise to power

BENTON – When Mike Johnson first ascended to become U.S. House speaker, his profile was so low that senators and foreign dignitaries had to turn to Google to figure out who he was.

A year later, however, Johnson has grown into much more of the public figure the speaker is expected to be. The Louisiana congressman makes the rounds of

Sunday political talk shows and is quoted regularly by the country’s biggest news outlets. Elite magazines published lengthy profiles on him last spring.

What was already known in Louisiana, but has become apparent to the rest of the world in recent months, is Johnson’s long history of evangelical activism. The congressman isn’t just a conservative Republican. He is first and foremost a conservative Christian, specifically a Southern Baptist.

As an attorney, Johnson dedicated himself to fighting legal battles on behalf of those on the religious right. Before joining Congress in 2017, he defended Louisiana’s ban on same-sex marriage twice in court, sued a Baton Rouge abortion clinic and challenged state laws that would have expanded liquor sales in north Louisiana, among other conservative causes.

“Mike is the real deal; he’s not a Christian because he is a politician,” said Rick Edmonds, a Republican Louisiana state senator who also served as Johnson’s pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in Shreveport.

Johnson’s perspective on certain social mores is out of step with the majority Americans’ views today — over 60% of Americans approve of both same-sex marriage and abortion in recent polls — but not necessarily with his north Louisiana community.

He’s popular enough that Johnson didn’t draw a serious opponent in his congressional race this year. He’ll appear on the November ballot with just one other minor candidate, who listed an Arkansas address when qualifying.

Louisiana is already more socially conservative than the country, particularly when it comes to issues such as abortion and LGBTQ rights, and Johnson’s homebase of Bossier Parish leans to the right of this right-leaning state.

In the 2020 election, former President Donald Trump beat President Joe Biden in Louisiana with 58% of the vote. But in Bossier Parish, where Johnson lives, Trump beat Biden with 70% of the vote despite losing the national election that year.

“We are one of the most conservative parishes in the state,” Bossier Parish Clerk of Court Jill Sessions said in an interview this week.

Bossier and Caddo, where Shreveport is located, are the two most populous parishes in Johnson’s sprawling district that is centered around northwest Louisiana.The Republicans who make up Johnson’s base aren’t just conservative but religiously so – like Johnson himself. “The Republicans up here might be redder than in other parts of the state,” said Alan Seabaugh, a Republican state senator from Caddo who used to share a law practice with Johnson.

“I’ve heard Mike refer to [Caddo and Bossier] as the buckle of the Bible belt,” he added. “We do churches in a very big way here.”

Bossier and Caddo defy common tropes about Louisiana’s Cajun and Creole cultures in south Louisiana that are based in Catholicism and a laissez-faire outlook on life. The greater Shreveport attitude is akin to what you might experience in east Texas or southern Arkansas. There is far less of a French influence.

“It’s much more of a Deep South type of environment. It’s Protestant in nature,” Edmonds said. “It was not the gumbo capital of the world.”

Republican political consultant Lionel Rainey said the differences in culture make north Louisiana conservatives more strident than their counterparts in south Louisiana. Catholic conservatives, he said, tend to be more flexible.

In Bossier, for example, hard liquor can’t be sold on Sundays in bars or retail stores. Compare that to fellow conservative House Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s home parish of Jefferson, where daiquiris are sold through drive-through windows seven days per week.

“It’s the difference between a Baptist and a Catholic,” Rainey said in comparing north and south Louisiana conservatives. “That’s the best comparison I can make.”

A central figure in Louisiana’s evangelical Christian community for years, Johnson was never shy about his conservative views. In a 2004 opinion column for The Shreveport Times, he urged voters to ban same-sex marriages through an upcoming constitutional amendment, referring to those unions as “counterfeit legal arrangements.”

“Homosexual relationships are inherently unnatural and, the studies clearly show, are ultimately harmful and costly for everyone,” he wrote at the time. “Society cannot give its stamp of approval to such a dangerous lifestyle.”

The amendment passed, but the U.S. Supreme Court tossed it and similar provisions in other states in 2015. That ruling made legal marriage available to same-sex couples in Louisiana almost 10 years ago.

In response, Johnson drafted state legislation as a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives in 2016 aimed at shielding religious employers from having to participate or provide services for same-sex marriages. It failed to pass the Senate, but another Johnson bill to restrict abortion did make it into law.

Since Johnson left for Congress, other Bossier Parish legislators have pushed similar bills in Louisiana.

Republican Rep. Raymond Crews, who took Johnson’s seat in the Louisiana House, successfully passed legislation to prohibit transgender children from using pronouns and names that align with their gender while in public schools.

Another Bossier Parish Republican, Rep. Dodie Horton, gained approval for bills that ban the discussion of sexuality in public schools and require the display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms.

Rep. Danny McCormick and Sen. Thomas Pressly, both Republicans from Caddo, have introduced bills in recent years to further criminalize abortion. McCormick’s legislation, which failed to pass in 2023, would have allowed women who had abortions to be charged with murder. Pressly’s bill classifies drugs used to carry out abortions as controlled dangerous substances, which makes them harder to access.

Even local government officials in Bossier have taken up for conservative religious causes.

Bossier Sheriff Julian Whittington first met Johnson when he hired the congressman as an attorney to represent him in a dispute over Whittington’s use of public prayer, the sheriff said in an interview this week.

In 2013, Whittington said the federal government was refusing to release government funding to him for youth programs because the children and teenagers participating were asked to pray. As a form of protest, the sheriff then started holding prayer rallies on public property.

Whittington had the support of Johnson and the local community, though the American Civil Liberties Union expressed concern about what he was doing.

Ryan Gatti, a former Republican state senator who lives in Bossier Parish, said in an interview this week Johnson is embraced for his religious roots within his district. While the congressman’s world view might stand in contrast to others in the country, it’s commonplace in northwest Louisiana.

“Up here, we don’t have a lot of atheists,” Gatti said.

Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com. Follow Louisiana Illuminator on Facebook and X.