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Speaker Johnson Won't Seek Reelection 11/05 06:22
WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Speaker Mike Johnson will be stepping aside from
Republican Party leadership after the GOP's wipeout in the midterm election,
declining to seek support to stay on as House minority leader in the new
Congress, according to two people familiar with his decision Wednesday.
Johnson is expected to retain his seat as a rank-and-file member of the
House from Louisiana when Congress convenes in January. He won reelection from
his Shreveport-area district for a sixth term in office.
It's a swift rise and fall for Johnson, often seen as an accidental speaker,
who nevertheless drew close to President Donald Trump and led the House GOP
during a tumultuous era, with one of the slimmest majorities in modern times.
And it sets up a fierce internal party battle for the new GOP leader after
Democrats swept to power.
Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the House majority leader, said in a letter
to colleagues that "the election was far worse than any of us expected" and he
is running for the minority leadership post because "the stakes couldn't be
higher." Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio sent a letter to colleagues describing himself
as "battle-tested" as he announced his bid for the job.
House Republicans are expected to elect their new leader when members-elect
gather in Washington next week, in what will likely be a familiar showdown
between Scalise and Jordan, who reached for the top spot before, only to lose
out, paving the way for Johnson.
The people who told The Associated Press about Johnson's decision insisted
on anonymity to disclose it.
Johnson's sunny assertions that Republicans would defy history in the
midterms, as voters traditionally have punished the president's party in power,
failed to hold. Instead, Republicans were trounced as Democrats swept to the
House majority, leaving Johnson without a path to power.
The powerful speaker's gavel now is expected to pass to Democrats, who are
preparing to nominate House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York for
the job, second in line to the president. The House speaker's election is among
the first votes of the new Congress, on Jan. 3, 2027.
From Shreveport to Washington
Johnson first won the speaker's gavel in 2023 after his colleagues ousted
the previous GOP speaker, Kevin McCarthy of California, in a first-of-its-kind
coup in House history.
A lower-level member of House leadership, Johnson in many ways fell into the
job after Republican colleagues could not agree on a successor to McCarthy. He
had distinguished himself before the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by
organizing support for Trump's false claims of widespread fraud in the 2020
election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
Once in office, Johnson quickly pulled closer to Trump -- so close that
Johnson candidly recounts their almost daily phone calls and chats, often
offering his impressions in the president's voice.
Johnson led passage of the GOP's signature package of tax breaks and social
services cuts that Trump signed into law. He protected the president and his
administration from embarrassing votes, including a recent effort to impeach
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, by simply sending lawmakers home.
House leadership elections ahead
Johnson's decision sets up a potential repeat of the leadership battles that
have played out in recent years between the House GOP's conservative and
far-right flanks.
Scalise has long courted backing from the House GOP's conservative wing,
particularly business and energy sector lawmakers. Jordan, the brawling former
wrestler who helmed the Judiciary Committee, has long been preferred by the
hard right, including some from the Freedom Caucus.
Both Scalise and Jordan tried for the speaker's gavel once McCarthy was
forced aside in 2023, but they failed to win majority support from their
colleagues, splitting the votes. At the time, Johnson emerged as the consensus
candidate who became the House speaker.
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