Republican congressman Mike Johnson has been elected as the next Speaker of the US House of Representatives.
The conservative politician swept the vote on the first ballot following weeks of turmoil since the ousting of Kevin McCarthy.
He emerged as the fourth nominee after a cycle of Republican internecine warfare since his predecessor was booted out by his own side.
While not the party's top choice, the deeply religious Mr Johnson has few foes and an important backer in former president Donald Trump.
"I think he's gonna be a fantastic speaker," Mr Trump said on Wednesday at the New York courthouse where the former president, who is now the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in 2024, is on trial over a lawsuit alleging business fraud.
Mr Trump said he had not heard "one negative comment about him. Everybody likes him".
Donald Trump is seen at the Republican National Convention in the US state of Ohio in July 2016. Image: Philip Scalia / Alamy Stock PhotoThree weeks on without a House speaker, more right-wing members had refused to accept a more traditional speaker, and moderate conservatives did not want a hard-liner.
While Mr Johnson had no opponents during the private roll call late on Tuesday, some two dozen Republicans did not vote, more than enough to have prevented him taking the gavel.
But when Republican conference chair Elise Stefanik rose to introduce Mr Johnson's name on Wednesday as their nominee, Republicans jumped to their feet for an extended standing ovation.
"House Republicans and Speaker Mike Johnson will never give up," she said.
Democrats again nominated their leader, Hakeem Jeffries of New York, criticising Mr Johnson as an architect of Mr Trump's legal effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election he lost.
"Democracy is messy sometimes, but it is our system," Mr Johnson said after winning the nomination. "We're going to restore your trust in what we do here."
Mr Johnson was elected to Congress in 2016 and has kept a relatively low profile since then though he is very socially conservative and a staunch Trump supporter.
He represents Louisiana's fourth congressional district, which includes nearly 760,000 resident and won the seat with the largest margin of victory in his region in more than 50 years.
After graduating from Louisiana State University, he spent nearly 20 years practicing constitutional law.
Mr Johnson then served in the Louisiana Legislature from February 2015 to January 2017.
Reporting by: IRN
