The three Republican members of Colorado’s House delegation voted to hand U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson the speaker’s gavel on Wednesday, ending a stalemate that left the chamber paralyzed for three weeks amid deep divisions within its GOP majority.

The 51-year-old Louisianan won election to the position on a 220-209, party-line vote. He was the Republicans’ fourth speaker nominee since former Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted by a group of GOP lawmakers at the beginning of the month.

After voting with their party for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the state’s Democrats slammed Republicans for elevating a leading architect of the GOP’s legal and legislative efforts to overturn former President Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle said they were anxious to get back to work as the House faces looming deadlines to fund the federal government and respond to global crises. But as Republicans cheered the election of a staunch conservative as speaker, Democrats called Johnson an “extremist” and warned that the GOP had lurched dramatically to the right.

“I believe Mike will finally unite our party by securing our borders, passing 12 individual appropriations bills, and holding the Biden Administration accountable,” tweeted U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Silt Republican, late on Tuesday after her party nominated the four-term lawmaker for the House’s top job.

Boebert, who helped block the more moderate House Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s speaker bid earlier this month, asked supporters in a fundraising appeal on Wednesday if they wanted to see “a MAGA Republican holding the speakers gavel?”

U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn said in a statement that he was “pleased” to support Johnson, calling the new speaker “well qualified for the position.”

“Now, we can return to important legislative work like ensuring Israel is able to defend itself and funding essential government functions, while reducing wasteful spending,” added the Colorado Springs Republican.

Republican U.S. Rep. Ken Buck of Windsor, one of more than two dozen GOP holdouts who voted against U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan’s speaker bid last week, told CNN during the vote on Wednesday that Johnson was able to unify the House GOP “probably because he has the fewest enemies of anybody in the Republican conference.” Buck added that Johnson is well-respected and “gets along with everybody.”

“I voted for Rep. Johnson because of his unwavering dedication to conservative principles, his willingness to tackle tough issues, and because he is the right candidate to bring this Republican conference together again,” said Buck, who was among the eight Republicans who voted to fire McCarthy.

While Buck withheld his support last week from Jordan, in part, because the Ohio Republican refused to “state unequivocally that President Trump lost the 2020 election,” Buck told CNN Wednesday that he didn’t set the same requirement for Johnson.

“I hope he comes around to that part, because it’s obvious that Joe Biden is the legitimate president,” Buck said.

Citing reports that former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows repeatedly told Trump that his claims of a rigged election were unfounded, Buck said that it was “clear that the people around Donald Trump told Donald Trump that he lost the election. I think it’s time for Republicans to shed themselves of that burden and move forward.”

Added Buck: “I think is a relief that we have moved forward and we have a speaker and we’re ready to legislate.”

Noting that Johnson authored a legal brief that attempted to throw out some states’ electoral votes and led the charge in the House to decertify Biden’s election victory, Colorado Democrats weren’t so forgiving.

“Instead of embracing bipartisanship, House Republicans have elevated an extremist,” said U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, a Denver Democrat, in a statement.

Johnson, she said, “helped lead the Big Lie which drove insurrectionists to attack our Capitol on Jan. 6,” including spearheading House Republicans’ support for a Texas lawsuit that sought to overturn Trump’s loss and later voting against certifying election results.

“That alone should be disqualifying,” DeGette added. “He has also repeatedly worked to end abortion rights, going as far as to declare that doctors should be imprisoned and given hard labor and saying specifically ‘We will get the number of abortions to ZERO.'”

U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen, a Lakewood Democrat, blasted Republicans for falling in line behind Johnson.

“Instead of working with Democrats to find a bipartisan path forward, they chose to cave to the far-right, fringe members holding their party hostage,” she said in a statement.

After listing some of Johnson’s positions – from the Republican’s support for a nationwide ban on abortion without exceptions and opposition to same-sex marriage, to support for cutting federal entitlement programs, including Social Security and Medicare – Pettersen added: “His views do not represent the majority of Americans, or even the majority of Republicans.”

“An extremist election denier shouldn’t be Speaker of the House,” U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, an Aurora Democrat, tweeted.

The heads of the state’s two major political parties took opposing views of Johnson’s win.

“Colorado Republicans’ enthusiastic support for someone so totally and completely out of step with Colorado values on democracy, abortion and reproductive care, gay rights, and the economy will be one of their biggest electoral regrets,” tweeted Colorado Democratic Party Chair Shad Murib, adding: “See y’all next November!”

Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dave Williams told Colorado Politics that Johnson had the state party’s backing.

“We fully support the election of Rep. Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House and thank our Republican delegation for supporting his candidacy,” Williams said in a text message.

On Tuesday, the state GOP lobbied against House Republican Whip Tom Emmer’s short-lived nomination as speaker, tweeting a suggestion that Lamborn, Buck and Boebert oppose the Minnesota Republican.

“We would consider it a betrayal of our base if Tom Emmer ever becomes speaker of the House,” Williams said in an online forum on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Hours after the GOP conference voted to designate Emmer as the party’s pick, Trump issued a statement on Truth Social saying that electing a “Globalist RINO” – a derisive acronym for “Republican in name only” – would be a “tragic mistake.” Emmer dropped his bid for speaker shortly after that.