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JUST IN: House Republican Will NOT Be Supporting Mike Johnson For Speaker

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14 hours ago

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U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) has confirmed that he will not be supporting House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) for another term when the new Congress is sworn in next month.

“I will vote for someone other than Mike Johnson. I’m not persuaded by the ‘hurry up and elect him so we can certify the election on J6’ argument,” Massie wrote in an X post on Saturday. “A weak legislative branch, beholden to the swamp, will not be able to achieve the mandate voters gave Trump and Congress in November.”

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Johnson can not afford to lose support from virtually any House Republicans due to the party’s slim majority in the House. Democrats are almost certain to dedicate their 215 to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), while Republicans have already been through a lengthy House speaker race. When a handful of lawmakers voted to oust then House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) last year, the party cycled through multiple candidates, including longtime House Freedom Caucus member Jim Jordan (R-OH) before eventually landing on Johnson as a compromise candidate.

Several moderate Republican have floated the possibility of making a deal with House Democrats in the past, which could lead to a scenario where Jeffries becomes speaker despite the Republican majority.

Despite the slim majority, Massie is not the only House Republican who has expressed dissatisfaction with Massie’s leadership. Former House Freedom Caucus chair Scott Perry (R-PA) declined to commit his support to Johnson while speaking with Fox News on Friday.

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“Right now, I think that Mike has done an admirable job under tough conditions, but I’m going to keep my options open. I want to have a conversation with Mike,” he said.

While Johnson was unanimously renominated by House Republicans to be Speaker again in November, several lawmakers have expressed frustration with his handling of an end-of-year short-term funding deal last week. “What members are seeking is what they think is good for the country, and they don’t see, in some cases, where Speaker Johnson has gotten us to the place where we can claim that we’ve achieved that,” Perry said.

Johnson has also faced criticism from wide swaths of the Republican electorate. According to a straw poll conducted at Turning Point USA’s annual AmericaFest conference, just 22 percent of respondents approve of Johnson’s job performance while 59 percent would prefer a new speaker.

 



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