Speaker Mike Johnson narrowly avoided a painful and prolonged fight to keep his post, but his messy victory showed how difficult his job will be in the new all-Republican Congress.

Congress begins a new session Friday with Republicans now leading both chambers. The House will need to elect a speaker before it can do anything else.

With two Republican lawmakers standing between Mike Johnson and the speaker’s gavel, President-elect Donald Trump picked up the phone.

President-elect Donald Trump reiterated his support for Mike Johnson with a post on Truth Social on Friday morning, saying “Good luck today for Speaker Mike Johnson, a fine man of great ability, who is very close to having 100% support.

Between Trump's agenda and DOGE, Republicans have steep ambitions for the coming years. On Friday, they avoided what could've been an early stumble.

President-elect Donald Trump congratulated Mike Johnson on social media after the Louisiana representative won his bid to remain as House speaker. CBS News' Ed O'Keefe has more.

Two holdouts were convinced to change their minds and support Johnson after all the first-ballot votes were initially cast.

Even with Donald Trump’s presidential victory, Republicans actually lost two House seats overall in the election. With the resignation of Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida. Republicans hold just a 219-215 edge this year.

"One should love America when you win and when you lose," the House Democratic leader said as Republicans fell silent.

Johnson did not acquiesce to the sort of demands made of Kevin McCarthy, who gave conservatives outsize sway to win the speaker's gavel in 2021.

House Speaker Mike Johnson nearly lost the first floor vote Friday to retain the gavel. When the vote was unofficially called, a handful of aimless Republican votes for other candidates (who weren’t running for the House’s most prized position) appeared to make it mathematically impossible for Johnson to win.