Johnson to address Clark County GOP Lincoln Day crowd

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson will be the keynote speaker at the Clark County Republican Committee’s Lincoln Day Dinner in Arkadelphia on Wednesday.

The event is a fundraiser for the Clark County Republican Committee at Henderson State University’s Garrison Center. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman of Hot Springs, whose district includes Clark County, will be in attendance at the event. Tickets for the the main ballroom have been sold out, and the event will be closed to the press, according to a news release.

Johnson, 52, a Republican from Louisiana, took over House speaker in October, after his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, was ousted by hardright Republicans.

The engagement is part of several annual fundraising dinners that include national GOP leaders serving as the keynote speaker for a county-or state-level Republican event, Seth Mays, executive director of the Republican Party of Arkansas, said.

In August, McCarthy gave the keynote address at the Republican Party of Arkansas’ Reagan-Rockefeller Dinner at the Little Rock Convention Center, its biggest fundraising event. In 2019, then House minority whip Rep. Steve Scalise, R-L.a., spoke at the Saline County Republicans’ Lincoln Day Dinner in Benton.

Johnson makes his visit to Clark County soon after the House of Representatives began a two-week recess. On Friday, the House passed a $1.2 trillion spending package to avoid a government shutdown. The House approved the bill in a 286 to 134 vote. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., was one of several Republican lawmakers critical of the budget bill, instead wanting increased cuts to federal spending.

Greene filed a motion to vacate the chair, the same procedural move that eventually led to the vote to oust McCarthy from the House speakership, although it remains to be seen whether there is enough support to remove Johnson as House speaker.