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A Premature Farewell to the Ignominious Speaker Mike Johnson

If Democrats win the House in the midterms, as expected, Mike Johnson won’t hold the gavel in any meaningful way again.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson addresses reporters outside of his office at the Capitol on September 16, 2026.

Is it too soon to say farewell to Speaker Mike Johnson? The Democrats are almost universally expected to win the House in November’s midterms, which would mean we’ve essentially seen the last of him in that role. Assuming these expectations are correct, there might even be debate over whether he gets the title of GOP minority leader. And while there will be a lame-duck session of the 119th Congress after the election, that’s shaping up to be a festival of recriminations, the last stand of GOP members who just lost their seats, thanks at least in part to Johnson.

What an ignominious tenure he has had. Remember, Johnson wasn’t the Republicans’ first choice as speaker when they retook the House. He wasn’t even their fourth. Kevin McCarthy won in January 2023, after more than a dozen votes, but was forced to resign nine months later. The House GOP then fielded three other representatives—Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan, and Tom Emmer—none of whom could get the votes. Finally, the pious Johnson, with his schoolboy looks and his empty legislative record, became the chosen front man for a fractious House GOP caucus, united only behind Trump.

Johnson may seem mild-mannered, but I found his early statements as speaker scary. “People are curious, ‘What does Mike Johnson think about any issue under the sun?’” he said in his first interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity. “I say, ‘Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That’s my worldview.’” The Nation’s Katha Pollitt lamented his “18th-century values.” But I didn’t expect Johnson to be able to accomplish much, and that turned out to be correct.

Only two weeks ago Johnson was seen boasting, at Donald Trump’s fake “midterm convention,” that the 119th Congress was “the most productive in 80 years.” By most available........

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