Mike Johnson won’t seek new term as House GOP leader after losses

Washington — House Speaker Mike Johnson told staffers that he will not run for minority leader in the new Congress, according to a source familiar with the matter, stepping aside after the GOP’s extensive losses in the midterm elections.

Johnson made the announcement on a call Wednesday morning, the source said. CBS News projected that Democrats will take control of the House in January with a wide majority.

In a letters Wednesday, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and House Judiciary chairman Jim Jordan told colleagues that they want the job. 

“My number one goal as Republican Leader will be to win back the majority and I expect you to hold me accountable to that mission,” Scalise wrote in a five-page letter. “To succeed, we will need to be effective in both the oversight and legislative fights ahead, but we will also need to lay out a clear and optimistic vision for America.”

Scalise argued that “tested leadership is needed now more than ever” to counter Democrats’ agenda and the onslaught of investigations. 

“This is a staggering day for our Conference,” Jordan wrote in his two-page letter, which was obtained by CBS News. “For too long, we have operated without a clear plan to survive the hour or the day in front of us. That will not cut it against an emboldened and energetic Democrat majority.” 

Jordan argued he was “battle-tested on the oversight front” — a priority as Democrats prepare an investigative blitz into the Trump administration. 

“I know the Democrats’ playbook,” Jordan wrote. “I know what it will take to lead our Conference in the minority, to stay unified, and to coordinate and calibrate our response to the Democrats’ tactics.” 

Republicans in the chamber plan to hold their leadership elections on Tuesday, Nov. 10, one week after Election Day, according to a GOP aide familiar with the planning. 

Johnson recently told CBS News in October that he intended to remain as the party’s leader if Republicans lost control of the House. 

But he had fueled speculation about his future in an earlier interview, when he suggested that he could go back to his hometown and start a lawn business if Republicans lost the majority. 

“If heaven forbid, if we lose this majority or whatever, I don’t know what my next chapter of life is. I’m just open to it,” he told Fox News on Oct. 8. “If God moves on our hearts and says we should go back to my hometown of Shreveport and start a lawn business, I’ll do that with equal fervor.” 

Republicans first elected Johnson as speaker in October 2023 after weeks of chaos in the wake of Kevin McCarthy’s historic ouster. Johnson, a little-known lawmaker at the time, was the party’s fourth nominee, after Reps. Tom Emmer, Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan failed to unite the party’s various factions. 

Republicans reelected him to the speakership in 2025. 

“It’s been the honor of my life to serve as the 56th speaker of the House — not a position we ever aspired to or expected to have,” Johnson said in remarks from Shreveport, Louisiana, on Tuesday night.