House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) predicted Friday that Speaker Mike Johnson would hold on to his job when the next Congress convenes in January – but he still has a tall order to win over a majority of member votes.
Johnson faced a chaotic week in Washington but managed to wrangle enough congressional support to push through a temporary spending bill and avert a government shutdown during the midst of the holiday season.
Tensions rose on Capitol Hill after Wednesday’s collapse of the spending bill prompted suggestions that Johnson should be replaced as speaker – with tech billionaire Elon Musk even floated as a possible replacement by some Republicans, including Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). Notably, the House speaker does not have to be elected.
But Scalise, a close ally of Donald Trump, threw cold water on that idea Friday, telling Raw Story he believes Johnson will retain the speaker’s gavel come January.
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“Speaker Johnson showed tremendous leadership this week in very difficult times,” the MAGA Republican said. “Look, both through a narrow majority that we have, but also just the difficulties of keeping the government running – you have a lot of different factions on our side, and you still have to deal with a Democrat Senate, a Democrat White House.”
“Luckily those times are changing,” he added.
Still, Johnson could have a difficult path winning over a majority of votes from House members.
Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN), who this week escalated her feud with her own party when she said she would refuse committee assignments and not caucus with Republicans when the House convenes next month, told Raw Story she was still undecided on whether she would vote to keep Johnson as speaker.
“We’ll see,” Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) said when asked if he would vote for Johnson.
He added: “Maybe I’ll throw my own hat in the ring.”
