Johnson Exits House GOP Leadership After Midterm Defeat
The Louisiana speaker will stay in Congress as a regular member, clearing the path for a contested race between two rivals for the minority leader post.
By Alessia Romano ·
House Speaker Mike Johnson will step down from his leadership role following the Republican Party's defeat in the midterm elections. He will not seek support to remain as the House minority leader in the upcoming Congress, according to two people familiar with the decision made Wednesday.
Johnson is expected to keep his seat as a rank-and-file member of the House. He won reelection from his Shreveport-area district for a sixth term. His departure sets the stage for an internal party fight over who will lead the GOP caucus once Democrats take the majority.
Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, currently the House majority leader, announced his bid for the leadership post in a letter to colleagues. Scalise wrote that the election results were far worse than anyone expected and that the stakes could not be higher. Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio also entered the race, describing himself in a letter as battle-tested.
The leadership election is scheduled for next week when members-elect gather in Washington. The contest is likely to mirror previous showdowns between the two men. Scalise and Jordan both sought the speaker's gavel in 2023 after Kevin McCarthy was ousted, but they split the vote and failed to win a majority. Johnson emerged as the consensus candidate at that time.
Johnson's tenure as speaker was marked by a close relationship with President Donald Trump. The two spoke almost daily, and Johnson often shared impressions of their conversations in Trump's voice. Johnson led the passage of a major package of tax breaks and social services cuts that Trump signed into law.
He also protected the president and his administration from votes that could have been embarrassing. This included a recent effort to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, which Johnson handled by sending lawmakers home. His sunny assertions that Republicans would defy the historical trend of midterm losses failed to hold as Democrats swept to power in the House.
The power of the speaker's gavel is expected to pass to Democrats, who are preparing to nominate House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York for the job. The House speaker's election is among the first votes of the new Congress, set for Jan. 3, 2027. Johnson first won the speaker's position in 2023 after his colleagues ousted McCarthy in a historic move.
Before his elevation to speaker, Johnson distinguished himself by organizing support for Trump's claims of widespread fraud in the 200 election. He was often viewed as an accidental leader who rose to the top when Republican colleagues could not agree on a successor to McCarthy. His swift rise and fall highlights the tumultuous era he navigated with one of the slimmest majorities in modern times.
