Johnson pads razor-thin House majority with Rulli swearing-in – Washington Examiner

The House welcomed its newest Republican member on Tuesday, bringing the GOP conference back to 219 members and giving House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) a three-seat majority as he navigates his legislative agenda with a historically small majority.

Michael Rulli was sworn into office after lawmakers completed their first votes of the week, putting the House at 432 members for the first time since mid-March. Rulli’s swearing-in is a small but important milestone for the conference as it looks to advance key spending measures over the summer.

Rulli, who has served as a state senator since 2018, reflected on the moment that brought him to work in government: his middle school trip to Washington, D.C.

During that trip, one of his fellow students asked their teacher what made Congress so special. And his teacher’s response, Rulli said, “brings me here today to join your group.”

“She said in the history of man, that the world has been ruled by kings and tyrants and dictators and just pure evil people,” Rulli said. “Then we had the experiment of the United States of America. This chamber, the chamber where the people actually rule the land.”

“We have to explain ourselves every two years, whether it’s good job or a bad job,” he added. “And we fulfill the obligations of our founding fathers that made this the greatest country in the civilization of man. And if we don’t succeed, mankind is done.”

Rulli fills the seat previously held by former Rep. Bill Johnson (R-OH), who announced his resignation last year to accept a position as president of Youngstown State University. He resigned effective Jan. 21.

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The replacement of Johnson chips away at the House’s backlog of vacancies announced over the last few months. Those include the seats vacated by Republican Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Ken Buck (R-CO), who both resigned from office before their terms expired. There is also the seat vacated by Democratic Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ), who died earlier this year.

Those seats are not expected to flip parties and will provide Republicans with a net boost to their majority once they are all filled.