When Mike Johnson was elected Speaker of the Home in 2023, his monetary disclosures raised eyebrows. It might seem the Republican Congressman from Louisiana, a right-wing evangelical Christian, didn’t report a checking account or belongings going again to 2016. How may that be?
“I am a person of modest means,” Johnson told Fox News on Sunday, explaining that he’s spent most of his profession working within the nonprofit sector and now has a number of children to place via faculty. “However I can relate to everyone else,” he stated, including that he’s a “higher chief” in consequence.
Hold studying for a deep dive into Johnson’s web value, how the ultra-conservative lawyer received his begin in politics, and why he’s principally residing paycheck to paycheck.
How did Speaker Mike Johnson get his begin?
Johnson was born Jan. 30, 1972, in Shreveport, Louisiana, to teenage mother and father (he wound up being the oldest of 4). When he was 12, his father, a firefighter, suffered burns over 80 p.c of his physique in a 1984 explosion. “I noticed an precise miracle of my father surviving after they stated that he shouldn’t,” he as soon as said. “It made me an individual of very deep religion.”
After highschool, Johnson received an undergraduate diploma in Enterprise Administration from Louisiana State College, the place he later attended legislation faculty, graduating along with his juris doctorate in 1998.
Like many politicians, Johnson labored as a lawyer earlier than getting into the D.C. enviornment. His focus was on constitutional legislation, spiritual liberty and household legislation, and his views had been ultra-conservative. Working for the Alliance Defending Freedom, a right-wing advocacy group, he defended Louisiana’s ban on same-sex marriage to the state’s supreme court docket twice.
“Some individuals are referred to as to pastoral ministry,” he said, when he first ran for Congress (via The New Yorker). “I used to be referred to as to authorized ministry, and I’ve been out on the entrance traces of the ‘tradition battle.’”
In 2015, Johnson was elected to the Louisiana Home of Representatives, the place he continued to advocate for conservative causes, and the next 12 months, he was voted into the U.S. Home of Representatives, representing Louisiana’s 4th congressional district.
Johnson was chosen as Speaker of the Home in October 2023 after the ousting of Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
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What are Speaker Mike Johnson’s political beliefs?
Johnson is a conservative Christian and probably the most right-wing speaker in latest historical past. Identical-sex marriage? He’s against it. Abortion? He desires a nationwide ban on it. (He as soon as said that Roe v. Wade “gave constitutional cowl to the elective killing of unborn kids in America, interval.”)
In 2022, he launched laws that got here to be generally known as the “don’t say homosexual” invoice, as it might prohibit any speak of sexual orientation and gender identification at any federally-funded establishment.
He additionally curried favor with MAGA Republicans in 2020 by refusing to certify the election.
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What’s Speaker Mike Johnson’s web value?
Forbes estimates that Mike Johnson’s web value is within the ballpark of $350,000, making him the least rich speaker of the century (together with being the least skilled). For comparability, Johnson’s predecessor Kevin McCarthy owned an funding portfolio within the six figures and former speaker Paul Ryan had belongings within the thousands and thousands. On the left, Nancy Pelosi’s web value has been pegged at nearly $250 million, eclipsing all of them.
According to Forbes, Johnson’s foremost asset—as listed in his monetary disclosure varieties—is his Benton, Louisiana house, value an estimated $600,000 (he and his spouse, Kelly, borrowed $290,000 to purchase the house for $428,500 in 2013), He didn’t even record a checking account or retirement account. (That doesn’t imply he doesn’t have a checking account, FYI; it simply signifies that any such account doesn’t bear curiosity and isn’t, subsequently, topic to disclosure.)
What’s Speaker Mike Johnson’s wage in Congress?
Johnson’s congressional wage is $174,000.
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What does Mike Johnson receives a commission to be Speaker of the Home?
Johnson received a roughly $50,000 elevate to be Speaker of the Home, incomes $223,000 per 12 months.
How does Speaker Johnson make his cash?
Johnson has made his cash as a lawyer and a politician, and regardless of his modest web value, he’s earned a superb wage doing each. As an illustration, in 2015, he took a job as a accomplice at a Louisiana legislation agency, making $128,000 that 12 months and $181,000 the next. He additionally earned $35,000 throughout that interval for his seat within the Louisiana state Home, a part-time gig.
As soon as he was elected to Congress, he began incomes $174,000 a 12 months. Then he received a $50,000 elevate to be Speaker of the Home.
Meantime, beginning in 2018, Johnson started educating faculty programs on-line on the Christian Liberty College, raking in as much as $30,000 a 12 months, according to Forbes.
General, his revenue has left many individuals scratching their heads over why the speaker seems to be residing paycheck to paycheck. He’s chalked it as much as having loads of bills, together with a number of children in faculty or graduate faculty.
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