House Speaker Mike Johnson will step aside from Republican leadership in the new Congress, declining to seek the minority leader post after his party lost the House in Tuesday’s midterm elections, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday, citing two people familiar with the decision who spoke on condition of anonymity. Johnson announced the decision on a call with his staff on Wednesday morning. He is not leaving Congress: he won re-election in his Louisiana district and is expected to serve as a rank and file member when the new Congress convenes in January.
Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, became Speaker in October 2023 after Republicans ousted Kevin McCarthy, and served two terms in the role. His public predictions that Republicans would defy midterm history did not hold, as Democrats swept both the House and the Senate and ended the Republican governing trifecta in Washington. In a statement posted overnight, Johnson acknowledged the outcome and vowed that Republicans would keep fighting and would take back the House in 2028.
The decision opens the contest to lead House Republicans in the minority. Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio, both of whom sought the top job before, are expected to be central figures in the race, and House Republicans are scheduled to hold their leadership elections on November 10. On the Democratic side, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York is in line to become Speaker when the new Congress votes on January 3, 2027.
The leadership turnover is the first formal consequence of the defeat inside the House Republican conference. It separates the question of who leads the party in opposition from the wider argument, already under way between Vice President JD Vance, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and President Trump himself, over why the party lost. Status: reported, based on the account of people familiar with Johnson’s decision; no departure from Congress is involved.