House Republicans will pick a new leader on November 10, and the man who has run the chamber since October 2023 will not be on the ballot. Speaker Mike Johnson told his staff on a call on Wednesday morning, November 4, that he will not ask his colleagues to keep him at the top of the party in the next Congress, two people familiar with the decision told the Associated Press.
The announcement came less than 24 hours after Republicans lost control of both the House and the Senate. Johnson had said before the election that he might stay in leadership even in the minority. He is expected to serve instead as a rank-and-file member from his Shreveport-area district in Louisiana, where he won an eighth term on Tuesday.
A rematch of 2023
The contest to succeed him is shaping up as a rerun of the fight that made Johnson speaker in the first place. Majority Leader Steve Scalise, also of Louisiana, and Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, both plan to run for minority leader, Fox News reported. Each sought the speakership in 2023, each fell short, and the two of them splitting the conference is what turned Johnson — then a little-known fourth-term congressman — into the consensus choice.
The alignments have not changed much either. Scalise draws most of his support from the conference's business and energy wing, while Jordan is the preference of the hard right, including members of the Freedom Caucus. House Republicans are scheduled to hold the leadership election on November 10, and candidates have to declare by Friday, according to Axios.
Whoever wins will lead a minority. Democrats are projected to hold between 251 and 268 House seats on CBS News estimates, with dozens of races still uncalled on Wednesday. Democrats are expected to nominate Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York for speaker, in one of the first votes of the new Congress on January 3, 2027.
The Senate changes hands too
The reshuffle is not confined to the House. Senate Majority Leader John Thune will lose that title in January: Democrats are projected to control at least 54 seats after flipping Texas, Kansas, Ohio, Iowa, North Carolina, South Carolina and Maine. Two races, in Alaska and Mississippi, were still being counted.
That leaves Republicans without their two most senior congressional leaders in the same week, and with a president whose party no longer controls either chamber for the final two years of his term.
Trump stays out, and points at the war
President Donald Trump said he plans to "stay out" of the House Republican contest and denied having asked Johnson to step down. He said he was "a little bit surprised" by the results and that he would accept them. Asked whether the war with Iran had cost his party seats, he said it was "largely true," pointing to higher gasoline prices, and added that "if I was on the ballot, we would have won."
Vice President JD Vance was blunter: "The reason we lost is the war." Trump said he would use his veto power against the incoming Democratic majorities, and also said he would work with Democrats on immigration.
A note on what the calendar means here: the leadership vote on November 10 is held by members-elect of a conference that does not take office until January, so the new leader will spend nearly two months as a leader-in-waiting while Johnson still holds the gavel.
Reporting from the Associated Press, CBS News, Fox News and Axios.
