House GOP already considering a future without Johnson

Speaker Mike Johnson is beset with political challenges: At least two conservative lawmakers have begun threatening his job. The former acting speaker trashed Johnson’s performance this week. A border-policy showdown with the Senate and White House draws nearer every day.

And then there’s the problem of the 2024 campaign.
A growing number of House Republicans are increasingly frustrated with Johnson’s leadership and whispering about whether he can hang on to his role after 2024 — if he even makes it that far.

Despite serving barely three months as speaker, the Louisianan is already facing an immediate threat from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who is openly disparaging him and suggesting she may try to boot him from the speakership.

“I don’t think he’s safe right now,” Greene said, adding: “The only reason he’s speaker is because our conference is so desperate.”
Few Republicans are prepared to join Greene, at least at this point. But more than 100 of them signaled frustration with Johnson’s approach to government spending by opposing a funding patch on Thursday, including House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik of New York. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), who briefly served as interim speaker, delivered a blunt warning Thursday night that “we’re sucking wind” under Johnson’s leadership, urging the speaker to broaden his circle of advisers and avoid kowtowing to his right.

And still other Republicans are privately predicting that unless Johnson can hang onto their thin majority this fall, his time atop the GOP conference could expire.

Interviews with more than a dozen GOP lawmakers revealed a consensus that Johnson would have serious trouble staying in power after an electoral defeat. These days, some lawmakers who embraced Johnson — after the failure of three other aspiring successors to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy — openly acknowledge that the Louisianan would get the blame for any stumble at the ballot box this fall.