House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) bowed out of the race to lead House Republicans after Democrats seized the chamber, as Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) prepared to jump in.
Johnson told his staff on a call Wednesday morning that he will not run for House minority leader, two sources told CNN. Sources gave the same account to Fox News Digital.
Democrats won control of both the House and the Senate in Tuesday’s midterm elections, NBC News projected. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) is expected to take Johnson’s gavel when the new Congress convenes in January, NBC reported.
The race to replace Johnson will decide which Republican leads the party’s defense of President Donald Trump in a House run by Democrats.
“The Ohio Republican is the first person in the minority leader race,” Punchbowl News founder Jake Sherman wrote, adding that Jordan, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, “will make the case that the leadership needs new blood; investigations are his specialty.”
Whoever wins the post is all but guaranteed to become Trump’s top defender against investigations led by Democrats, and possibly against impeachment efforts, according to a separate Fox News report.
“Lawyer up,” Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), who is set to chair the House Oversight Committee, told Trump, his family and Republicans in a statement Tuesday night. The new Democratic majority will give the party subpoena power, NBC Washington reported.
Johnson stepped aside weeks after predicting he would stay in charge even if Republicans lost, and less than a day after promising supporters a comeback.
“I would expect my colleagues would ask me to continue leading this conference, even if we have divided government,” Johnson told CBS News’ Robert Costa in October, The Hill reported. “I think I would stay right there.”
“Republicans will not be deterred by the outcome of one election,” Johnson told supporters in Shreveport, Louisiana, on Tuesday night, The Washington Times reported. He vowed that “come 2028, we will take back the House and we will finish this job.”
Johnson used the same speech to describe voters as alarmed by Democrats.
“Millions of Americans voted because they love their country,” Johnson said. “They voted in this election, and they’re alarmed about the direction the Democrats are taking and their embrace of this socialist Marxist platform that is a threat to people everywhere.”
“And every single time it’s been tried, it’s ended in human suffering and misery and pain and even death,” he said of that platform.
But voters flipped at least 25 Republican-held House seats to Democrats, more than the 21 Democrats took in 2008, Al Jazeera reported, citing the Associated Press tally.
The fight over the post is expected to begin when lawmakers return to Washington next week, according to The Hill. Attention will now shift to a possible matchup between Jordan and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), CNN reported.