Just hours after Republicans suffered major losses in deep-red districts, the fallout from Tuesday’s election was already reshaping House GOP leadership.
Speaker Mike Johnson, who is set to lose his gavel when Democrats take control of the House in January, told members of his staff on a private conference call Wednesday that he would not run for House minority leader, according to two House GOP leadership sources who were granted anonymity to discuss the private call.
With the top GOP spot now open, the No. 2 House Republican — Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La. — sent his colleagues a letter announcing his candidacy for minority leader. And conservative Rep. Jim Jordan — the current chair of the House Judiciary Committee — did the same thing.
“In these next two years, our job cannot be merely to spotlight how radical this new Democrat party is — offense, not defense, wins elections,” the Ohio Republican wrote. “To restore our majority, we must restore voters’ faith in our ability to deliver on these principles.”
The contest sets up a rematch of the speakership race from October 2023, when neither Scalise nor Jordan was able to secure enough support to win the speaker’s gavel. That standoff ultimately led to Republicans uniting behind Johnson, elevating the Louisiana Republican to the speakership.
But with Johnson announcing that he won’t seek the top leadership spot, there were questions already swirling around the Capitol about whether Johnson intended to serve the term he was just elected to.
In a letter released later Wednesday, Johnson said his wife and four children had made sacrifices so he could serve as speaker. “After three years in this role, I believe the time has come for me to give them more of the attention and presence they so richly deserve,” he wrote.
Johnson’s stint as speaker was marked by narrow majorities, modest legislative victories and fierce allegiance to President Donald Trump.
With Trump playing a crucial role in securing the votes, Johnson was able to muscle through the GOP’s tax-and-spending reconciliation bill in 2025. Republicans had hoped that legislation would propel them to electoral success on Tuesday. Instead, their campaign message was drowned out by voter concerns about the cost of living, high gas prices and corruption — all products of a broader dissatisfaction with Trump, who Johnson and Republicans in Congress cheered on as he remade Washington and the federal government in his own image.
Now, Republicans face a more fundamental question: What should their party’s leadership look like in the wake of these stunning losses?
Trump has been severely weakened by the election, and Democrats are preparing to use their control of both chambers to investigate and challenge his administration.
It remains unclear how much Democrats will be able to accomplish legislatively with Trump in the White House. On Tuesday night, as state after state and district after district turned blue, Trump told Fox News during a live telephone interview that Democrats could pass all sorts of bills, and he would send the legislation right back with a veto.
And, Trump said, “there’s nothing they can do about that.”
But the Democratic majorities are large enough that Democrats would need only a relatively small number of Republican votes to override a presidential veto. And after so many Republicans in red districts lost — and many more came close to losing — some GOP lawmakers may see a political realignment taking place. The fealty to Trump that has served so many Republicans well at the ballot box may no longer be a viable strategy.
The emerging leadership contests, however, offer little evidence of a reckoning with the political approach that helped bring Republicans to this low point.
Scalise has served in House leadership since 2014, and he has been at the center of every GOP legislative decision since. Jordan was first elected to Congress 20 years ago, and he was the founding chairman of the House Freedom Caucus — the far-right faction that pushed Republicans further right at nearly every opportunity. He, too, cozied up to Trump and made loyalty to the president a key litmus test in the party.
An irony of the deep losses Tuesday is that the Republicans who are left are some of the most conservative members of Congress. Whoever is elected minority leader will need only a simple majority of the conference. And the vote is held behind closed doors.
Republicans are projected to have fewer than 180 members in the House next Congress, meaning the race for minority leader is effectively a race to 90 votes. Those dynamics could dramatically alter the calculations for the candidates, giving individual factions and state delegations greater leverage in deciding the outcome.
The same dynamics will be at play in the other GOP positions up for grabs.
House GOP Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota is already making calls about running for his position again, according to a Republican aide who requested anonymity to discuss the private calls. But if he chooses to run, he will face competition from Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, who is currently the chairman of the Republican Study Committee — the largest conservative House GOP group.
Even with Emmer having a number of allies in the GOP conference — and making important inroads with Trump — the battle for the No. 2 position could be bruising, considering Pfluger’s support with RSC members and his ties to the large Texas delegation.
Further down the leadership trough, Rep. Lisa McClain of Michigan, the current House Republican Conference chair, is planning to run for re-election to her position, according to a House GOP aide who requested anonymity because she hasn’t officially launched the plan.
There are other names floating around GOP circles about who might challenge McClain and who might run for other positions, such as chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Rep. Brian Jack, R-Ga., also sent a letter to colleagues on Wednesday, obtained by MS NOW, that announced he was running for NRCC chair. And Rep. Rudy Yakym’s office confirmed to MS NOW that the Indiana Republican would also be vying for the spot.
But other members may be jumping into these races in the coming days and hours, though there isn’t much time for campaigning.
Lawmakers are due back at the start of next week, and House GOP leadership elections are scheduled to start on Tuesday.
The post House Republicans are already having a leadership fight — but are avoiding a reckoning appeared first on MS NOW.
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