House Speaker Mike Johnson has announced that he will not pursue the role of minority leader in the new Congress. The decision follows a bruising midterm defeat in which Republicans lost their majority in the chamber to the Democrats.
Johnson informed his staff of the decision during a phone call on Wednesday morning, one day after the election results. By declining to run for the leadership position come January, Johnson has effectively yielded the role of the highest-ranking Republican in the House to whichever member of his party can claim it.
This move triggers a struggle over who will guide GOP lawmakers as they confront a diminished role as a legislative minority. Johnson's tenure is seen as a swift rise and fall for a man often described as an accidental speaker. During his time leading the House GOP, he drew close to President Donald Trump and managed the party through a tumultuous era characterized by one of the slimmest majorities in modern times.