House Speaker Mike Johnson told staff Wednesday he will not run for minority leader after Republicans suffered a generational midterm wipeout, walking away from the caucus he led straight into a historic defeat.
This is what accountability looks like in the uniparty: preside over a disaster, then quit. Ordinary Americans who sent Republicans to Washington to fight for them got instead a leadership class that governed one of the slimmest majorities in House history and delivered precious little on the priorities they campaigned on. Now, with Democrats projected to hold around 250 seats — one of the largest majorities since Obama — the same leaders who promised victory are scattering.
Johnson, who jolted to power in October 2023 after hardliners ousted Kevin McCarthy, had spent the run-up to Tuesday's elections insisting Republicans would defy history and hold the House. According to the New York Post, he "incessantly conveyed optimism" right up until the returns came in. Instead, the GOP lost up to 50 seats.
The leadership vacuum is already filling. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the House Judiciary chairman, is expected to run for minority leader, according to multiple outlets. The Guardian reported that Fox News said Jordan was planning an effort to oust Johnson even before the announcement — a sign the writing was on the wall. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana), Johnson's top lieutenant, also says he'll run. Both men will have to explain how they presided over Tuesday's drubbing.
Meanwhile, the establishment is already spinning the loss as a referendum on populism rather than a failure of delivery. Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) took to X to call for Republicans to "return to the principled conservative values that once defined us" — by which he meant the pre-Trump era of free trade, global leadership, and fiscal responsibility that voters have already rejected at the ballot box twice. Curtis blamed "a hastily executed war, headline after headline of scandals, a ballooning $40 trillion debt, and unpredictable tariffs" — a curious list that manages to blame tariffs alongside the debt and wars that the establishment itself championed. "Many shrewd political minds found it worth abandoning these principles in order to win elections," Curtis wrote, as if winning elections were the problem rather than failing to govern once you get there.
That's the real story of this wipeout. Republicans didn't lose because they were too populist. They lost because they convinced working Americans they'd fight for them, then governed like the other team once the gavel was in hand. The $40 trillion debt Curtis laments didn't happen on the populists' watch — it was a bipartisan project decades in the making. The wars didn't start with America First; they started with the same "resolute diplomacy and global leadership" Curtis now pines for.
On the other side of the aisle, Brooklyn's Rep. Hakeem Jeffries is a sure thing to become the first Black House Speaker, commanding a majority of over 250 Democrats. Sen. Chuck Schumer will lead a resurgent Senate Democratic caucus of 54 to 56 senators. Senate Majority Leader John Thune reportedly plans to run for GOP minority leader in the upper chamber.
The question for the next Congress isn't who holds the title of minority leader. It's whether anyone in the Republican caucus understands that voters didn't reject America First — they rejected a party that promised America First and delivered the same swamp.
