Mike Johnson faces widespread Republican revolt
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Speaker Johnson looks on during the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree lighting ceremony on Dec. 2. Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
House Speaker Mike Johnson is staring down an internal revolt, with anger spilling out from conservative hardliners, to regular members and senior GOP leaders alike.
Why it matters: A series of recent decisions — like keeping the House out for almost two months and failing to move widely-supported bills— have triggered unusually loud pushback from Johnson's own members.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), a member of Johnson's own leadership team, publicly attacked him this week, telling The Wall Street Journal that Johnson is "a political novice" and predicting that "the majority of Republicans would vote for new leadership."
- In response, a Republican congressional aide told the New York Times that Stefanik should be more grateful to Johnson for what the aide called a "fake job and a fake title."
A group of House conservatives derailed Johnson's legislative agenda for the week, withholding support for name, likeness and image legislation.
- GOP leadership is aiming to bring the bill up on Thursday, but conservatives remain dug in.
Johnson is also confronting an unusual uptick in discharge petitions — a direct challenge to his control of the House floor.
- Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) moved Tuesday to file her discharge petition on banning members of Congress trading individual stock, and it's already picking up a wide swath of GOP support.
- Johnson told Punchbowl News he believes members should be able to own stock.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who is already forgoing a reelection bid to run for governor, plans to speak with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) next week, sources familiar with the matter told Axios.
- The meeting, first reported by the Times, comes after Greene announced her plans to resign from Congress on Jan. 5, nearly a year before her term is set to expire.
- Mace wants to "pick her brain" about "the bullsh*t that is the House," the sources said, including members being "taken for granted," the need to use discharge petitions to get bills passed and Johnson not codifying any of Trump's executive orders.
- A source familiar with the situation told Axios that Mace doesn't dislike the speaker, but wants change.
Flashback: The conversation comes after retiring Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) told Axios that he also contemplated an early resignation in protest of the Trump administration's Russia-Ukraine peace plan.
Between the lines: The pattern mirrors the internal dynamics that destabilized former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
- Johnson isn't currently facing a motion to vacate, but the escalating public criticism is a troubling sign for the two-term speaker.
