Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has had to contend with the rebellion of a handful of House Republican women in recent weeks, with several disagreements spilling into public view.
Four Republican women have expressed a wide range of frustrations with the speaker over the last several weeks, including Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY).
On Thursday, Mace expressed grievances with the direction of the House, saying in a post to X, “I loathe how slow Congress moves. I loathe we haven’t delivered on President Trump’s agenda. I loathe serious lawmakers aren’t taken seriously.”
Reports circulated on Wednesday that Mace was considering following Greene into retirement, who shockingly announced in November that she would resign from the House, following many run-ins with President Donald Trump and Johnson, despite previously being one of Trump’s closest allies on Capitol Hill. According to the New York Times, the pair was set to meet next week to discuss it; however, Mace has denied plans to retire from the House.
“Media catches one tiny piece of an overheard conversation and loses it,” Mace said in a post to social media. “Confirmed: There’s frustration that discharge petitions are the only way to move things through the House. Confirmed: There’s frustration we haven’t codified Trump’s Executive Orders. We did Gulf of America. Cool. Look at Elise Stefanik or Anna Paulina Luna comments this week.”
She continued, “Not confirmed: That anyone is retiring. Goodness. And God bless!”
A source familiar with Mace’s thinking told the Washington Examiner that Mace will be meeting with Greene next week, and said that the South Carolina Republican doesn’t “dislike” the speaker but wants to see change in the lower chamber.
Mace previously broke with leadership earlier this year when she was one of four Republicans who signed on to the discharge petition to force a vote on the full release of the files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
But Republican women have continued to split with Johnson, and Mace’s complaints came on the heels of a 48-hour bust-up with Stefanik, which was later ironed out.
Stefanik’s feud with Johnson stemmed from a dispute over her proposed provision for the National Defense Authorization Act, which was later resolved after an agreement was reached to add it to the bill.
Despite the “productive” call she had with Johnson and the president, she still later went on to tell the Wall Street Journal that if they voted for a new speaker “tomorrow,” he “wouldn’t have the votes.”
Johnson responded to Stefanik’s comments, saying, “I’m not sure to comment on what Elise is doing or what the rationale behind this is.”
“I was trying to work through the details and trying to make sure there was no national security implications or whatever. But Elise and I had a good conversation last night,” Johnson said. “I told her I never understood what the disturbance was all about. I think she and I had a different set of facts that we were working on, and that’s what it was. So it should be resolved. I’m happy about that.”
This week, Luna introduced another discharge petition on the longtime issue of banning congressional stock trading, an issue that has long split both parties in Congress. Mace and Stefanik swiftly signed on.
Luna had continuously threatened to deploy a discharge petition for months if Johnson failed to move on the issue, marking one of the many petitions that have been a thorn in Johnson’s side.
The Florida Republican exclaimed she is “pissed” on X, but reiterated that she likes Johnson.
“The insider trading is really bad and even the speaker knows it,” she wrote. “I like Mike. Mike is a good guy. I hope he backs me on this one.”
Although shocking, Greene’s retirement announcement came after she had been airing frustrations for weeks, going as far as to tell the Washington Post that a lot of the men in the House are “afraid of strong Republican women.”
“Whereas President Trump has a very strong, dominant style — he’s not weak at all — a lot of the men here in the House are weak,” Greene said. “There’s a lot of weak Republican men and they’re more afraid of strong Republican women. So they always try to marginalize the strong Republican women that actually want to do something and actually want to achieve.”
The battle began earlier this year when Luna introduced a discharge petition to force a vote on a bill to designate another member as a proxy beginning on the date of the birth and terminating 12 weeks after.
Johnson staunchly opposed the bill, going to great lengths to throw a wrench into the push before the bill reached the floor. The standoff ultimately came to an end with a deal between the two to allow for vote pairing instead of proxy voting.
While this group of women has expressed their frustrations, other members have run to the speaker’s defense.
Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) released a statement Thursday highlighting the speaker’s accomplishments and praising his leadership.
“Speaker Mike Johnson has led our majority with God-given courage, clarity, and remarkable patience,” Miller wrote. “Under his leadership, House Republicans are delivering real results and advancing President Trump’s America First agenda everyday.”
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) defended the speaker to the Washington Examiner, saying it is not a “man-woman issue.”
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”I don’t see the man-woman issue,” he said. “We had a DOGE committee, and Marjorie didn’t appoint any women, so I guess you could say it’s just philosophical differences.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to Johnson’s office.
Rachel Schilke and Ross O’Keefe contributed to this article.