Rep. Mike Johnson to Step Down as House GOP Leader After Midterm Losses

House Speaker Mike Johnson will not seek to remain the leader of the Republican Party in the House of Representatives following the midterm elections.

According to two people familiar with the decision who spoke on condition of anonymity, Johnson declined to support his bid to become the House minority leader. This decision comes after Democrats gained a majority in the House during the recent election cycle.

Johnson will keep his seat as a regular member of the House from Louisiana. He was reelected from his district in the Shreveport area for a total of eight terms in office. The new Congress is scheduled to convene in January.

Johnson first assumed the speaker’s gavel in 2023. He took the position after his colleagues removed the previous Republican speaker, Kevin McCarthy, from the role. At the time, Johnson was a lower-level member of House leadership. He became the speaker because Republican colleagues could not agree on a successor to McCarthy.

Prior to the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, Johnson organized support for President Donald Trump’s claims regarding widespread fraud in the 2020 election. Once in office, Johnson developed a close relationship with Trump. He has described their communication as consisting of almost daily phone calls and conversations.

During his tenure, Johnson led the passage of the Republican Party’s signature package of tax breaks and social services cuts, which Trump signed into law. He also protected the president and the administration from certain votes by sending lawmakers home. This strategy was used to avoid a recent effort to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The departure of Johnson sets up a contest for the new Republican leadership. House Republicans are expected to elect their new leader when members-elect gather in Washington next week. The race is likely to feature a contest between Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio.

Scalise, who served as majority leader, has sought backing from the conservative wing of the House GOP, particularly from lawmakers in the business and energy sectors. Jordan, the former wrestler who led the Judiciary Committee, has been preferred by the hard right, including members of the Freedom Caucus. Both men previously sought the speaker’s gavel in 2023 but failed to win a majority of votes.

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 position. The election of the House speaker is among the first votes of the new Congress. This vote is scheduled for Jan. 3, 2027.