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Mike Johnson is facing a new challenge as he becomes the Republican speaker with the smallest majority in history. Despite maintaining control of the House, he will have to navigate an even smaller margin as President-elect Donald J. Trump seeks his support to push through important agenda items.
Written by Catie Edmondson
Coverage from the legislative building.
The margin of Speaker Mike Johnson’s majority has decreased.
The final House race was decided on Tuesday night when Representative John Duarte of California, a first-term Republican, admitted defeat to Democrat Adam Gray. This victory solidified a slim majority of 220-215 for the Republicans, which is only slightly larger than their current majority of 220-213.
In January, the margins will decrease even more as Representatives Elise Stefanik from New York and Mike Waltz from Florida leave their positions to work in the Trump administration. Additionally, former Representative Matt Gaetz from Florida has announced that he will not be coming back.
After this, Republicans will only have a slim majority of 217-215 in the House, which is one of the closest margins in history. If all Democrats are present and united against a proposal, Mr. Johnson will not be able to have any Republicans defect on the House floor until the vacancies are filled later in the spring. Even after that, only three Republicans can go against the party without causing a bill to fail.
On Wednesday, Mr. Johnson appeared calm and unaffected by the idea, stating to reporters at Capitol Hill that they are experienced in working with a narrow majority and it is something they are used to.
He stated that there are no extra resources available. However, all members are aware of this fact. They discussed this today, as they always do, emphasizing the importance of working together as a team and moving in the same direction.
He did not talk about the fact that a lot of his success in working with a slim majority in the past year came from collaborating with Democrats to pass necessary laws that his own party didn’t back. However, this strategy may not be possible in the future with President-elect Donald J. Trump leading the country.
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