House kills Greene’s resolution to oust Speaker Johnson. How did South Carolina’s delegation vote?

WASHINGTON (WCBD)- The U.S. House on Wednesday overwhelmingly rejected an effort by conservative Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to oust Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) from the Speakership.

The chamber voted 359-43 to table, or kill, Greene’s motion to vacate, with seven Democrats voting present. Just 10 Republicans sided with Greene to vote against it.

“I appreciate the show of confidence from my colleagues to defeat this misguided effort,” Johnson said after the vote. “Hopefully this is the end of the personality politics and the frivolous character assassination that has defined the 118th Congress.”

All seven South Carolina delegation members voted to block Greene’s effort.

Shortly after the vote, Rep. Russell Fry (R-S.C.) called Greene’s effort “the wrong move at the wrong time.”

“Today I voted to table the resolution to declare of [sic] of the Speaker vacant,” Fry wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “You don’t kick a coach out in the middle of a game. Let’s unite as a party and as a conference and focus on the real priorities of the American people.”

Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) also invoked a sports metaphor in explaining his decision not to oust the Speaker despite having “differences in policy, strategy, and tactics” with him.

“Just as you don’t fire the coach in the middle of the game in football or basketball, we shouldn’t fire the Speaker in the middle of a session where we need to pass vital legislation for Americans,” Duncan wrote on X. “President Trump and countless Republicans agree that we should not oust Speaker Johnson. Let me be clear, Speaker Johnson was nominated by the Republican Conference for this role, and I have always stood with any nominee from the Conference.”

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), one of eight GOP members who voted to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) last year, posted a simple “thumbs up” emoji after the vote. She previously told Newsmax she didn’t know why Greene was bringing the motion because she was “going to lose.”

The final vote — which was widely expected amid bipartisan opposition to the ouster gambit — deals a major blow to Greene, who filed her measure more than a month ago and had threatened to trigger it ever since.

It means Johnson, who won the gavel in October, will remain in the top job. But the vote puts him in the precarious position of being a GOP Speaker propped up by Democrats, which could earn him the ire of conservatives.

The Hill contributed.