Speaker Mike Johnson is stepping away from House Republican leadership after the GOP’s brutal midterm defeat.

Johnson told staff Wednesday that he will not run for minority leader when Democrats take control of the chamber in January.

His decision immediately opened a fight between some of the biggest names in the House Republican Conference.

The first reports paired Johnson’s exit with word that Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan was preparing to run:

The next Republican leader will inherit a battered conference, a Democratic majority and a two-year fight to defend President Trump’s agenda from a House built to investigate and obstruct it.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Associated Press reported that Johnson will decline to seek support for the minority-leader post, citing two people familiar with his decision. The move follows a rapid rise that took him from a relatively little-known Louisiana conservative to speaker after Kevin McCarthy’s removal in 2023.

Johnson governed with one of the narrowest House majorities in modern history. That left him trying to satisfy conservatives demanding real spending cuts and border enforcement while a handful of Republican defections could sink almost any bill.

He also became a close ally of President Trump and a central defender of the administration’s legislative program. But Tuesday’s losses changed the math, the title and apparently Johnson’s willingness to remain the conference’s top leader.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise wasted no time entering the race to succeed him:

Scalise and Jordan have been here before.

Both men reached for the speaker’s gavel after McCarthy was ousted. Scalise won the conference’s internal nomination but withdrew when he could not secure enough votes on the House floor.

Jordan later failed to assemble a majority of the full chamber, and Republicans eventually turned to Johnson.

Axios reported that Scalise is pitching himself as the leader who can return Republicans to the majority and handle the legislative and investigative battles ahead. A Scalise-Jordan contest would revive the same divide that paralyzed the conference three years ago, except this time the winner will lead from the minority.

House Republicans are scheduled to choose their next leadership team on November 10, with candidates facing a Friday deadline to declare. That gives members only days to decide whether this is a promotion of the current team or a genuine change in direction.

ADVERTISEMENT

The scramble is already spreading below the top job. Rep. August Pfluger is challenging Tom Emmer for Republican whip, the conference’s number-two position in the next Congress:

That second contest shows how quickly the entire power structure is moving. Members are deciding who gets to rebuild the House GOP after voters stripped it of the majority.

The stakes go far beyond office suites and leadership titles.

Democrats will control committees, issue subpoenas and use hearings to target the Trump administration. Republicans need a leader who can keep the conference together, expose Democratic overreach and make a credible case for retaking the House in 2028.

They also need an honest accounting of why they lost. Promoting familiar faces without changing strategy will not persuade voters who just delivered a national rebuke.

Johnson’s exit guarantees a new name at the top. Whether Republicans get new leadership in substance—or only a new arrangement of the same leadership table—is now the question every House conservative should be asking.

 

Join The Conversation. Leave a Comment.