WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson will step aside from Republican leadership after his party's sweeping defeat in the midterm elections, declining to seek the minority leader's post in the new Congress. The decision, reported by the Associated Press and NPR on Wednesday, 4 November, ends Johnson's three-year run as the top House Republican and opens a contested race to succeed him — just as Democrats prepare to take control of the chamber.
Johnson told his staff of the decision on a Wednesday-morning call, according to people familiar with the matter, a day after voters handed Democrats control of both the House and the Senate. He is expected to remain in Congress as a rank-and-file member from his Shreveport-area district in Louisiana, where he won re-election on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported.
The move caps a swift rise and fall. Johnson, often described as an accidental speaker, drew close to President Donald Trump and led the House Republican conference through one of the slimmest majorities in modern times. With Democrats sweeping to power, he was left without a path to the gavel — or to the leadership of a minority he had told colleagues he expected to keep leading.
The announcement
Johnson informed his staff on Wednesday morning that he would not run for the minority leader's job in the new Congress, according to a source familiar with the matter cited by CBS News, and the Associated Press reported the same decision from two people familiar with it. He followed up with a letter to his Republican colleagues, in which he framed the decision around his family rather than the election result.
"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." — Mike Johnson, in a letter to House Republican colleagues, as reported by Axios
The letter, obtained by Axios, does not mention the defeat. In a separate statement posted overnight, Johnson acknowledged the outcome and vowed to keep fighting. "While the outcome of this midterm is not what we'd hoped and fought for, a new battle is just beginning," he wrote, according to USA Today. "Republicans will never stop fighting to defend the Constitution."
The announcement reverses the position Johnson had signalled before the election. He had told CBS News that if Republicans lost the House — what he called an "unlikely scenario" — he expected his colleagues would ask him to continue leading the conference even in divided government, according to reporting by The Hill.
A swift fall after a historic defeat
Johnson had spent the campaign insisting Republicans would defy midterm history. Voters have traditionally punished the president's party in midterm elections, and Johnson's sunny assertions that his party would buck that pattern failed to hold. Instead, Republicans were trounced as Democrats swept to the House majority — and took the Senate as well, ending the Republican governing trifecta in Washington.
Speaking on Tuesday night, Johnson nodded to the history he had been trying to beat. "From the first day of this election, we knew that to keep the House and sustain our majority, we would have to defy more than a century of midterm history," he said, according to NPR. "It's only happened twice in 90 years that a sitting president has picked up or held seats for his party in that first two-year cycle."
Why it matters: the speaker's gavel is now expected to pass to the Democrats, who are preparing to nominate House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York for the job — second in line to the president. The election of the speaker is among the first votes of the new Congress, on 3 January 2027, according to the Associated Press. Jeffries would be the first Black lawmaker elected to the position, NPR reported.
Both President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance have suggested the widespread Republican losses were linked to the war in Iran and rising fuel prices — an assessment that has fed the post-election reckoning inside the party.
The race to succeed him
Johnson's departure leaves the top House Republican post open, and the contest to fill it began the same day. House Republicans are scheduled to hold their leadership elections on Tuesday, 10 November.
The two leading contenders are familiar figures who have reached for the top job before: House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio. Scalise announced his candidacy in a letter to colleagues in which he called the election result "far worse than any of us expected", and Jordan sent a letter to colleagues on Wednesday saying he wants the job, CBS News reported.
The pair represent the conference's two poles. Scalise, the current majority leader, has long courted backing from the party's conservative wing, particularly business and energy-sector lawmakers, according to the Associated Press. Jordan, who has chaired the Judiciary Committee, has long been preferred by the hard right, including members of the Freedom Caucus.
Both men reached for the speaker's gavel after Kevin McCarthy was forced aside in 2023, but neither could win majority support — and Johnson, then a lower-level member of leadership, emerged as the consensus candidate. Johnson's decision now sets up a potential repeat of that battle between the party's conservative and far-right flanks.
Johnson's tenure
Johnson first won the speaker's gavel in October 2023, after his colleagues ousted McCarthy of California in a first-of-its-kind vote in House history. A lower-level member of House leadership at the time, he fell into the job after Republican colleagues could not agree on a next-in-line successor, the Associated Press reported. He was re-elected speaker in 2025, and served two terms in the role, according to NPR.
Once in office, he pulled close to Trump — so close, the Associated Press reported, that Johnson candidly recounts their almost daily phone calls and chats. He led passage of the Republican Party's signature package of tax breaks and social-services cuts that Trump signed into law, and he protected the president and his administration from embarrassing votes, including a recent effort to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, by sending lawmakers home.
He also endured the balancing act of keeping his conference united with the narrowest of majorities, NPR noted — a dynamic in which even one Republican defection could put party priorities at risk. That dynamic will not be replicated for Jeffries, whose comfortable margin means he will likely be able to advance his priorities even with defections.
Timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| October 2023 | Johnson becomes speaker after Kevin McCarthy is ousted in a first-of-its-kind House vote |
| 2025 | Johnson is re-elected speaker for a second term |
| 3 November 2026 | Democrats win both chambers in the midterm elections; Johnson wins re-election in his Louisiana district |
| 4 November 2026 | Johnson tells staff and colleagues he will not seek a leadership post in the new Congress |
| 10 November 2026 | House Republicans scheduled to elect their new leader |
| 3 January 2027 | New Congress convenes; speaker election among its first votes |
What is not yet known: who will win the Republican leadership election on 10 November — Scalise and Jordan are the leading contenders, but the vote has not happened and other candidates could still emerge. The exact size of the Democratic majority is also still being finalised as remaining races are called.
Frequently asked questions
Is Mike Johnson leaving Congress?
No. He is giving up the leadership job, not his seat. He won re-election in his Shreveport-area Louisiana district on Tuesday and is expected to serve as a rank-and-file member when the new Congress convenes in January, according to the Associated Press.
Who will be the next speaker of the House?
Democrats are preparing to nominate House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. The speaker's election is among the first votes of the new Congress, on 3 January 2027. Jeffries would be the first Black lawmaker elected to the position, according to NPR.
Who will lead House Republicans in the minority?
That will be decided in leadership elections scheduled for 10 November. Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan are the leading contenders; both have announced their candidacies.
Why did Johnson step aside?
In his letter to colleagues, Johnson cited the demands leadership had placed on his family. He did not mention the election defeat. The timing — a day after Republicans lost both chambers — means the decision is widely read as a consequence of the midterm result, though Johnson's own statement does not say so.
What happens to Johnson's speakership now?
He remains speaker until the new Congress convenes in January. The gavel then passes to the Democrats' nominee, with the speaker's election among the first votes on 3 January 2027.
Key takeaways
- House Speaker Mike Johnson will not seek to lead Republicans in the new Congress, stepping aside a day after the party's midterm defeat.
- He keeps his House seat and will serve as a rank-and-file member from January; Democrats are preparing to nominate Hakeem Jeffries as speaker.
- Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan are the leading contenders to lead House Republicans, with the leadership vote scheduled for 10 November.
- The decision reverses Johnson's pre-election position that colleagues would ask him to stay on even in divided government.
- The speaker's election on 3 January 2027 will be among the first votes of the new Congress.
What to watch next: the Republican leadership election on 10 November, which will show how far the party's internal reckoning goes — a Scalise win would favour the conference's conservative establishment, while a Jordan win would hand the minority leadership to its hard-right flank. Beyond that, the new Congress convenes in January, when the speaker's gavel changes hands and the Democrats' agenda — and Johnson's role as a backbencher after three years at the top — comes into focus.
