Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.), a key GOP vote who previously suggested she would not back Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), minutes before the vote signaled she'd back him.
"I appreciate @SpeakerJohnson’s public commitment to the American people to deliver on President Trump’s agenda and drain the swamp," Spartz wrote on the social platform X.
Separately, a source in Spartz's office said she would vote for Johnson.
Spartz was responding to a post from Johnson in which he made a number of commitments to GOP lawmakers over how he would lead the House.
In his post, Johnson wrote: "The American people have demanded an end to the status quo, and a return to fiscal sanity. That’s why the citizens of our great country gave President Trump the White House and Republican control of both chambers of Congress.
"If we don’t follow through on our campaign promise for fiscal responsibility, we don’t deserve to hold power."
Johnson described the debt, a key issue for Spartz and other conservatives, as a grave issue to national and economic security, and committed to creating a working group comprising independent experts — "not corrupted by lobbyists and special interests" — to work with the "Department of Government Efficiency" panel set up by Trump to reduce spending.
He also wrote that he would task that working group with reviewing existing audits of federal agencies and entities created by Congress — and issuing a report to my office for public release.
Finally, he said he would request that House committees "undertake aggressive authorizations and appropriations reviews, including providing additional resources where needed, to expose irresponsible or illegal practices and hold agencies/individuals accountable that have weaponized government against the American people."
Johnson's commitments line up with several demands Spartz laid out in a letter earlier this week.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) is expected to vote for another candidate. If he does, Johnson cannot afford another GOP defection, assuming Democrats are all present and vote for their favored candidate.
That makes a Spartz vote for Johnson a key development that could put him over the top.
What's unknown is whether a handful of other GOP lawmakers might decide to withhold their support from Johnson.
