During the last week of February, a large billboard appeared in front of Mike Johnson’s church in Benton, Louisiana.
“For such a time as this,” it read, quoting a Bible verse next to an image of a damaged Baptist church in Berdyansk, Ukraine. He addressed Johnson by name.
The ad was funded by Razom, a Ukrainian human rights group, and appealed to Johnson’s deep Christian faith – and his power as speaker of the House of Representatives to secure billions in dollars in U.S. funding for Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s full-scale invasion.
The campaign paid off last week, when Johnson shocked Washington and U.S. allies around the world by allowing the House to vote in favor of the aid, unlocking $95 billion in funds for Ukraine. Israel and Taiwan.
The Senate also passed the package Tuesday evening. President Joe Biden is expected to sign it as early as Wednesday and has said kyiv will receive the weapons “quickly” – crucial support just as Russian forces threaten to overwhelm Ukraine’s defenses.
It marks a huge turnaround for Johnson, who had already repeatedly voted against aid to Ukraine and for months used his power as president to block a vote on further support. And it marks the culmination of a months-long behind-the-scenes campaign by intelligence chiefs, White House officials, European diplomats and Ukraine’s evangelical Christians to persuade him.
Those close to Johnson insist that he has long sympathized with the plight of the Ukrainian people and has spent recent months trying to find a way to satisfy rival factions within the Republican Party, including isolationists who threatened to oust him because of his support for Ukraine.
“There has never been a lack of clarity about who is right and who is wrong in this conflict,” said a person close to Johnson.
The White House first contacted Johnson just days after he became president in October, according to administration officials who said he was initially briefed on Ukraine by the U.S. adviser. national security, Jake Sullivan.
Yet in February of this year, it was Biden himself who applied the pressure, summoning Johnson to the Oval Office and urging him to stop procrastinating on a funding bill for kyiv and Israel that had passed the Senate weeks earlier.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer described the meeting as one of the “most intense” he has ever attended. But when Johnson emerged, he gave no indication that he had been won over.
European nations, fearing the death of new U.S. support for Ukraine, rushed to find alternative funds for kyiv. Ukraine’s military leaders have warned they are running out of ammunition.
In retrospect, people familiar with the Oval Office meeting now say it played a crucial role in Johnson’s willingness to negotiate. The attendees, which also included House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, were briefed on Ukraine by Sullivan and CIA Director Bill Burns.
Johnson was briefed again more recently by Burns, who hosted the President’s staff at CIA headquarters to talk about Ukraine on March 29, according to administration officials.
Johnson also received briefings from senior Pentagon officials, including those from the U.S. European Command. The information was convincing.
“I really believe the information and the briefings that we received,” Johnson said last week in explaining his decision to call a vote. “I believe that Xi [Jinping] and Vladimir Putin and Iran are truly an axis of evil. . . I think Vladimir Putin would continue to march across Europe if he were allowed to do so.”
Razom, the Ukrainian group behind the billboard in Louisiana, was meanwhile trying other personal means to appeal to the President.
He organized a speaking tour for Roman Rubchenko, a Ukrainian basketball star who had played for the state’s university, to speak to Louisiana voters about the war. Razom also arranged for a helmet and letter from Ukrainian firefighters on the front lines with Russia to be sent to Johnson, whose late father had served as a firefighter in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Private meetings between Johnson, a devout Baptist, and persecuted Ukrainian Christians were also a “significant factor,” said Melinda Haring, a senior adviser at Razom.
Pavlo Unguryan, a Ukrainian evangelical leader who met with Johnson after Biden’s State of the Union address in March, helped arrange a meeting last week, before the House vote, with Serhii Gaidarzhi, a fellow Ukrainian Baptist whose wife and four-month-old son were killed by a Russian drone attack in Odessa in early March.
In behind-the-scenes negotiations with the White House, Johnson stressed the need for accountability over how Ukrainian money would be spent — a major concern of some aid-skeptical Republicans — and called for more sanctions against Russian companies and entities.
He also insisted that the White House guarantee that kyiv would receive more ATACMS, a US tactical missile system but with a longer range than those already in Ukraine, as well as munitions and other weapons systems.
Johnson’s demands for weaponry reflected demands from the Ukrainians — including from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a meeting with Johnson in December, according to the people involved.
Johnson also moved to shore up support for his position within the party.
On April 12, he went to Mar-a-Lago for a meeting with Trump. The former president, an avowed isolationist, had already come under pressure from several pro-Ukrainian foreign leaders, including British Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron, who pleaded for increased support for kyiv to Trump during dinner on April 9.
Johnson used the meeting to tell Trump he would hold a vote on aid to Ukraine, according to a person familiar with the discussions. Trump expressed his approval for the president during a news conference after the meeting. His reaction a few days later, when Johnson announced his plan, was muted.
But by then, Iran had launched a massive air strike against Israel on April 13, attacking a U.S. ally and changing the mood in Washington.
Johnson outlined his plans for the four-pronged national security package two days later, when Congress was returning from a weekend of urgent foreign policy discussions. Later that evening, he spoke on the phone with Biden, who had also called him the day before.
“The Iranian attack on Israel was an important element that added to the urgency, in his view,” said a person familiar with Johnson’s thinking. “The world needs to see the United States support Israel. » The legislation passed Saturday included an additional $26 billion in U.S. aid for Israel, as well as money for kyiv.
“This is a live-fire exercise for me, as it is for many families,” Johnson told reporters last week, referring to his son, who will start at the U.S. Naval Academy in the fall. “To put it bluntly, I would rather send bullets to Ukraine than American boys. . . We must do the right thing and history will judge us.
Unguryan, the evangelical leader, declined to comment on the details of his private conversations with Johnson, saying only that his “brother in Christ” had prayed for the Ukrainian people.
“President Johnson remained on his knees and prayed that God Almighty would give him the wisdom to make this very important decision and to make the right decision,” he said.
Additional reporting by Felicia Schwartz in Washington
