World News
Mike Johnson will give up the leadership of House Republicans as Democrats prepare to make Hakeem Jeffries Speaker
By Staff Writer | 5 November 2026
The Speaker will not seek to stay on as Republican leader in the new Congress after his party lost control of both chambers in Tuesday's midterm elections. Democrats say they expect to hold at least 255 House seats once counting ends.
Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, will step aside as leader of the chamber's Republicans after his party lost its majority in Tuesday's midterm elections. He will not seek his colleagues' support to remain as their leader when the new Congress meets in January, according to two people familiar with his decision. Reports on Wednesday said he had also ruled out a bid to become minority leader.
Johnson is expected to keep his seat as an ordinary member. He won an eighth term in his district around Shreveport, Louisiana, on Tuesday. Democrats won control of both the House and the Senate, ending the Republican hold on Congress that had carried much of President Donald Trump's agenda since he returned to office.
A contest for the Republican leadership
House Republicans are expected to elect a new leader when members-elect gather in Washington next week. The likely contenders are Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the majority leader, and Jim Jordan of Ohio, who chairs the Judiciary Committee. Both sought the Speaker's gavel in 2023 after Kevin McCarthy was removed, and neither won majority support. Johnson emerged then as the candidate his colleagues could agree on.
On election night Johnson told supporters in Shreveport that he was disappointed but that the party would keep pressing its agenda and aim to win back the House in 2028.
Republicans will not be deterred by the outcome of one election.
Mike Johnson, Speaker of the US House of Representatives
Jeffries in line for the gavel
Democrats are preparing to nominate their House leader, Hakeem Jeffries of New York, as Speaker, a post that stands second in line to the presidency. The vote is among the first business of the new Congress on 3 January 2027. If elected, he will be the first Black Speaker of the House.
At a news conference on Wednesday Jeffries called the result "an American tsunami" and said Democrats expected to win at least 255 House seats once every count was final. He said the party would concentrate on lowering living costs rather than on pursuing the President and his allies. As a model, he pointed to a bipartisan housing bill passed in July, which became law without Trump's signature.
Jeffries added that Democrats would still hold the administration to account where the facts and the law required it. Trump has said he will veto legislation passed by a Democratic Congress, and he has also said he will accept the results. Among the Republicans defeated on Tuesday was Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who lost to the Democrat Troy Jackson.