Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to quell the most significant conservative rebellion he’s faced since taking the gavel.
His right flank is furious over a deal on overall spending levels he struck with Democrats — looking to avoid a partial government shutdown that would start next week — that largely resembles the bipartisan agreement former Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached with President Joe Biden last year.
During a closed-door conference meeting on Wednesday, Johnson walked his conference through the topline agreement he negotiated with Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer. He defended the deal, warning that he didn’t see Republicans gaining more leverage by shutting down the government.
Privately, he’s indicated he doesn’t want to go down that path, despite some members pushing to do so absent additional border security policies. Raj Shah, Johnson’s spokesperson, posted on X that he had spoken with President Joe Biden and urged him to “use his executive authority to secure the southern border.”
But Johnson’s pitch didn’t sell the most volatile faction of his conference, who went to the floor just hours later and blocked a trio of unrelated bills from even coming up for debate, a high-profile retribution over the spending deal.
Conservatives have harangued the speaker both in closed-door meetings and publicly on social media since congressional leaders announced the deal. And that criticism is mounting, underscoring that even though most aren’t ready to oust him they are increasingly disenchanted with a leader they thought would fight for conservative priorities.
“Before we could even get together, he announced the terms of the surrender,” said Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), telling reporters that he was leaving Wednesday’s conference meeting early because he didn’t want to listen to more “drivel.”
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), another Freedom Caucus member, added that “our entire situation makes no sense.”
“He is doing the best that he can. … [But] I think he’s getting bad advice from some of his staff,” Donalds said, adding that he thought “members are not really being talked to and consulted.”
Johnson pleaded with members to voice their disagreements during the closed-door meetings rather than airing their frustrations on social media. And Republicans took him up on it, using the open mic session to sound off against the deal.
Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told Johnson during the conference meeting what he “should have done” on the spending deal, according to one individual familiar with the meeting. Johnson, a former member of Jordan’s panel, replied that he “channeled his inner Jim Jordan” and made demands, according to a different House Republican, but that he wasn’t able to get everything they wanted given the thin House GOP margins.
Johnson’s most vocal critic, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), wasn’t at Wednesday’s conference meeting after getting delayed in Iowa. Roy, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, warned publicly this week that he considers an attempt to oust Johnson “on the table.”
No other Republican has publicly embraced that call, including the eight who helped boot McCarthy last year.
Newly elected Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good (R-Va.) brushed off questions about using the hardball tactic, saying he doesn’t “know anyone who doesn’t support [Johnson] personally.” Asked if the speaker should be fired, Davidson, another Freedom Caucus member, instead said that he “should never have been hired.”
Johnson shrugged off Roy’s criticism on Wednesday.
“Chip Roy is one of my closest friends. … What I’ve talked with him about is the reality of what is soon to be the smallest majority in the history of the Congress,” Johnson said. “We are going to advance the ball … and we are going to demonstrate that we can govern well.”
And Johnson’s allies are projecting confidence that his speakership is safe, even as Republicans face near-constant questions about his grip on the job.
“I think people can say what they want. I think the reality is nobody wants to go through another speaker campaign,” argued Rules Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.), a nod to the three-week chaos the conference suffered in October, that finally ended with Johnson’s election by a unanimous GOP.
But even if the right flank isn’t ready to oust another speaker, he’s losing support. His conservative critics say they specifically elected him because they thought he’d fight for their priorities, and they’ve felt betrayed by his willingness to strike deals with Democrats — something Johnson’s allies argue is just a reality of governing when the other party controls the Senate and the White House.
“We’ve just got to have a backbone. … How much he’s willing to actually get in there and say no — you’ve got to learn to walk away from a bad deal. This is a bad deal by any stretch of the imagination,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) said in a brief interview.
It also underscores Johnson’s uphill climb to shore up Republican votes for any shutdown-averting spending bills. Johnson declined to weigh in on the possibility of using another short-term funding patch to buy more time past Jan. 19, when the first tranche of funding will run out. The second shutdown deadline encompassing the rest of federal government spending hits on Feb. 2.
“There’s a lot of concern over the top line,” said Republican Study Committee Chair Kevin Hern (R-Okla.). “It’s going to be very difficult to get a large majority of Republicans to support it.”
A coalition of House and Senate conservatives joined forces for a press conference on Wednesday, as they urged leadership to avoid greenlighting additional government funding without significant new border restrictions.
“We’re not going to spend additional funding for the federal government until we can see our border security,” said Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), adding that he’ll be rolling out a new slate of border-related bills on Thursday.
Johnson has not endorsed that threat, and a Senate group has worked to negotiate border policy changes that would be tied to a foreign aid package — not to keeping the government funded.
Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) briefed members of the Republican Study Committee, the House GOP’s largest internal group, about those negotiations.
“I think overall it was pretty well-received,” Hern said after the meeting, adding that Lankford told House Republicans that he is hoping to have text for a Senate deal by the middle of next week.
While Johnson can pass the bills without a chunk of Republicans, as long as he gets Democratic support, doing so would likely only deepen frustration within his own ranks.
Senate GOP leadership has acknowledged that there will likely need to be another short-term stopgap funding bill, known as a continuing resolution or a CR, to avoid a partial shutdown next week. A coalition of centrists and House Republicans tasked with negotiating government funding are also opening the door to that step.
As Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) put it: “Anybody that understands appropriations would have to agree that we’ve got to have a short-term CR.”
