House Speaker Mike Johnson does not plan to stay on as Republican leader in the new Congress, a source familiar with his plans told NPR.
The big picture: Johnson served two terms as speaker after Kevin McCarthy was ousted in 2023, and he ran the chamber with a margin so thin that a single Republican defection could sink a party priority.
- House Republicans hold their leadership elections on November 10, and the race for minority leader is now open.
Zoom in: Hakeem Jeffries of New York formally asked colleagues on Wednesday to back him for speaker, and he would be the first Black lawmaker elected to the post.
- Jeffries inherits a comfortable majority, so he can likely pass his priorities even with defections from the handful of members elected with Democratic Socialists of America support.
What they're saying: "From the first day of this election, we knew that to keep the House and sustain our majority, we would have to defy more than a century of midterm history," Johnson said Tuesday night.
- "It’s only happened twice in 90 years that a sitting president has picked up or held seats for his party in that first two-year cycle," he added.
By the numbers: Historically the president's party loses House seats at the midterms, and this blue wave flipped seats in traditionally red states that Trump had previously won.
Why it matters: The speaker decides what reaches the House floor, so this handoff determines which bills on health care, energy costs and oversight get a vote starting in January.
