While House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) may have yet again avoided a government shutdown, his speakership may be on the line with some Republicans already refusing to commit to supporting him come January 2025.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) has said he will vote against Johnson’s reelection as speaker on Jan. 3, and several other Republicans told reporters last week that they were unsure of his leadership. Both chambers of Congress will meet three days later to certify the results of the 2024 election, so the absence of a House speaker could threaten Congress’s ability to hold a constitutionally mandated joint session for certification.
Republican leadership in the 118th Congress began on rocky terms with 15 votes being required to confirm former Speaker Kevin McCarthy to the role. After McCarthy was ousted by a few hard-line members of the GOP, Johnson’s confirmation took four votes and required Democrats to help.
After negotiating a bipartisan agreement to keep the government open through until the middle of March 2025, which tech mogul Elon Musk effectively torpedoed, Johnson abandoned the package. House Democrats have now accused Johnson of going back on his agreement and said they would not support him again in his bid for the speakership.
“There will be no Democrats available to save him, or the extreme MAGA Republicans, from themselves, based on the breaching of a bipartisan agreement that reflected priorities that were good for the American people,” Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said on MSNBC’s Inside with Jen Psaki.
“I’m voting for Hakeem Jeffries,” Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) told Axios on the matter.
Part of President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance’s pushback against the bipartisan deal came from the pair wanting an increase or suspension entirely of the debt ceiling. Many House Republicans, including Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ), have made fiscally conservative policies a cornerstone of their political identity, and a debt ceiling increase typically takes months to negotiate.
Schweikert and 37 other House Republicans voted against the second bill Johnson put forward that would have suspended the debt ceiling through 2027. The bill failed as Democrats did not support it and too many Republicans were opposed.
The House ended up approving, with the help of Democrats, a three-month spending bill that included $110 billion for disaster relief and a one-year extension of the farm bill. But the failure to deliver on Trump’s last-minute demands for a debt ceiling increase or suspension has reportedly put Johnson in the hot seat with the president-elect.
“The president is upset — he wanted the debt ceiling dealt with,” one Trump insider told Politico.
“In the past couple weeks, we’ve questioned whether [Johnson has] been an honest broker,” another insider told the outlet.
Johnson, for his part, has spent much time trying to get friendly with Trump, Vance, and Musk. He attended a UFC fight with the trio and most recently attended the Army-Navy football game in Maryland with them.
Trump additionally tapped three Republican members to serve in his Cabinet, meaning the GOP’s already slim majority in the lower chamber will shrink to just 217-215 until special elections can replace those members.
“In reality, I think we all know that getting to 218 in this conference today is not an easy task for anyone,” Rep. David Valadao (R-CA) said. “These past two years have been a little bit of a roller coaster, and we expect that to continue.”
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Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX), who said he is undecided about supporting Johnson, additionally told Axios last week the speaker will need to rely on support from House Democrats to retain his post.
“If Mike Johnson wants to continue to be the speaker, he’s going to have to get Democrats to support him,” Nehls said. “Otherwise, it will be tough for him.”