Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is expected to keep his gavel in the next Congress after receiving glowing reviews from President-elect Trump.
But if there is any kind of revolt from Johnson’s conservative detractors during the Jan. 3 Speaker vote, no Democrats will step in to save him, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) warned on Wednesday.
“I can say with a relatively high degree of confidence that no Democratic votes will be forthcoming for any Republican Speaker candidate on Jan. 3,” Jeffries told reporters in the Capitol.
Johnson has built a track record as one of the most conservative lawmakers in the lower chamber over his eight years on Capitol Hill. But a number of conservative hardliners have bashed the Speaker after he cut deals with Democrats on legislation to fund the government and provide military aid to Ukraine.
In May, Johnson survived an effort by members of his far-right flank to boot him from power, but given the thin margins in the House, the vote required Democrats to cross the aisle to rescue him. They did so in overwhelming numbers: The tally was 359 to 43, with only 10 Republicans and 33 Democrats voting to oust him.
That strategy marked a shift from the Democratic tactics during the hardliners’ successful effort to oust former-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in October last year. In that vote, no Democrats crossed the aisle to rescue McCarthy, allowing a group of just eight Republicans to push him out.
Johnson will need 218 votes to keep his gavel for the next two years in the upcoming Speaker election. He will have little room for defections, given the even thinner margins next year, when Republicans will control 220 seats to the Democrats’ 215.
The Republican advantage will be even smaller during the first months of 2025, since former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) resigned from Congress this month in a failed bid to become Trump’s attorney general. That means Johnson can afford only one GOP defection to keep his seat of power.
“In terms of my own nomination,” Jeffries quipped Wednesday, “I’m just trying hard to get to 215.”
