House Speaker Mike Johnson to Step Down as Republican Leader After Midterm Blow
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Mike Johnson said he will not seek the Republican leadership role in the next Congress after the party's midterm setbacks, setting up a Nov. 10 leadership election amid deep GOP dysfunction.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said he will not remain the Republican leader in the upcoming Congress after the party's disappointing midterm results, a source familiar with his plans confirmed. Johnson, a Louisiana Republican who served two terms as speaker after succeeding Kevin McCarthy in 2023, indicated his decision will open the minority leadership position for a new election on Nov. 10.
"From the first day of this election, we knew that to keep the House and sustain our majority, we would have to defy more than a century of midterm history. It's only happened twice in 90 years that a sitting president has picked up or held seats for his party in that first two-year cycle. There's a lot of reasons for it. It's very, very difficult to overcome, and it looks like history will be kept tonight," Johnson said.
The outcome reflects the familiar pattern of the president's party losing seats in midterms, a trend that hit this cycle especially hard and exposed the limits of Republican messaging. Johnson's tenure was marked by close coordination with the Trump administration and the challenge of holding together a party with a razor-thin majority, where a single defection could derail GOP priorities. The forthcoming Republican leadership contest will determine the next minority leader, while Democrats are expected to elect Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York as speaker, a historic first for a Black lawmaker.