In some stunning news to come out of the midterm election debacle for Republicans, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) announced that he will not be attempting to become the House Minority Leader now that Republicans have gotten shellacked in the midterms. Simultaneously, it leaked out that Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), long something of a more MAGA stalwart and much tougher fighter, could be attempting to win that position.
For reference, the GOP appears to have lost seven Senate seats and 25 House seats, losing their majority in both houses by a wide margin in an utter blowout of an election. Many were quick to blame Republican leadership, particularly in the legislature, for getting almost nothing done in the two years of total dominance they had, and instead frittering time away and accomplishing nothing substantive.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune received much more blame than Mike Johnson for that, as Johnson has wrangled the House into doing more, but Johnson still faced a slew of criticism from the right when the results started to come in on what turned into a bloodbath of an election night for Republicans.
It was Politico, the DC-based and national political wrangling news-focused publication, that reported Speaker Johnson’s decision to avoid running for a leadership position again, though he appears to have handily won his race to hold onto his seat in the House of Representatives in generally red Louisiana. That outlet reported:
“Johnson of Louisian [sic] announced his plans on a private call with staff Wednesday morning, according to two people on the call. His decision comes after Republicans lost at least 21 seats in the midterm elections, returning Democrats to power after four years.”
Politico added that he had apparently mused in private about trying to be Minority Leader if the Republicans lost, but appears to have decided against it after the drubbing that Republicans got. The outlet then went on to report that his decision to avoid running sets up a battle between Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan over who will be the next leader of the House GOP contingent.
Scalise is generally thought to be the more “Establishment” candidate than Jordan. However, both are generally pro-MAGA, and Jordan is thought by many to be the tougher fighter when it comes to grappling with the Democrats. However, he also has a reputation for writing letters rather than achieving any real results.
It was Punchbowl News that reported that Rep. Jordan is planning on taking another step up the leadership ranks by attempting to become House Minority Leader. Eric Daugherty drew attention to that news in a post that quickly went viral, saying, “Rep. Jim Jordan is RUNNING FOR HOUSE MINORITY LEADER — Punchbowl Mike Johnson is the current Speaker, but has made no formal announcement about seeking Minority Leader just yet Clearly, the House GOP is about to have leadership challenges. It’s currently unclear who will challenge John Thune in the Senate
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Watch Johnson speak after the disastrous defeat the Republicans received here:
Featured image credit: By Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America – Mike Johnson, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=139920652