House Speaker Mike Johnson says he is not sure what comes next for him if Republicans lose their grip on the chamber in next month's midterms — and he is not ruling out walking away from Washington entirely. Johnson said he would consider heading home to Louisiana and starting a lawn care business rather than staying in politics. “I don't know what my next chapter of life is,” Johnson said, adding that his focus for now is “on protecting the party's majority.”
The remarks, first reported by Yahoo News, come as Republicans cling to a razor-thin 218-214 seat advantage in the House, according to NPR. Johnson floated a strikingly specific backup plan: returning to his hometown of Shreveport to “start a lawn business” if he decides that is where he is needed. He framed the stakes bluntly, saying that if Republicans lose the House, “it will be because the people were misled,” per the same Yahoo report. Johnson has also scheduled the House to remain in recess until after the election, the outlet noted.
A Razor-Thin Majority Under Pressure
The battle for the House is unusually wide open this cycle. The Cook Political Report currently lists 43 districts as competitive, including 22 pure toss-ups, and NPR's own analysis found more than 90 districts where campaign resources are being committed in the final stretch. Both parties and allied super PACs are concentrating on 60 shared priority districts — seats that, on average, voted for President Trump by an 8-point margin in 2024, according to NPR's reporting.
Money is pouring in to match the stakes: nearly half a billion dollars in ad reservations have already been placed through Election Day, NPR reports. A Reuters/Ipsos poll cited by Yahoo found 44% of registered voters say they would back Democrats compared with 37% for Republicans, with 13% still undecided — numbers that track with what NPR describes as record-low approval and record-high disapproval for President Trump.
Economic Anxiety Hits Home in Louisiana
Back in Johnson's own district, the political mood is more complicated than a simple referendum on leadership. PBS NewsHour reports that Johnson, who is seeking a sixth term, faces no serious danger in his own race even as voters there wrestle with high gas and grocery prices, the war in Iran and what the outlet calls “the lingering sense of an uneasy new economic normal.” Johnson helped push the party's tax-and-spending package over the finish line last summer despite the slim House majority, PBS notes — but the same report found Louisiana has seen a 21% drop in SNAP recipients in the year since the bill passed, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a decline trailing only Arizona and roughly matching Nevada.
Leadership Fight Looms if GOP Loses
Should Republicans lose their majority, the fallout would not stop with Johnson. Fox News Digital reports that several House Republicans already expect the chamber to slip from their control in November, anticipating a major shake-up in leadership. One Republican lawmaker told the outlet bluntly that Johnson “would be first out” among party leaders if that happens.
Fox's reporting points to two names circling a potential minority-leader contest: Representative Jim Jordan and Majority Leader Steve Scalise. A second House Republican described Jordan as the “number one name” in minority-leader talks, while most House Republicans are privately expecting Scalise, who has held a spot in GOP leadership since 2014, to run for the job as well. One lawmaker estimated Scalise currently holds an edge, with Jordan “running a close second.” For his part, Jordan has downplayed the speculation, telling Punchbowl News he is “focused on winning” the House majority rather than jockeying for a leadership post, according to Fox's account.
Under House rules, as outlined by the U.S. House of Representatives, majority-party and minority-party members meet separately to choose their own leaders — meaning any such contest would play out entirely within the House GOP conference if Republicans end up in the minority. For now, Johnson insists his energy is trained on holding the line in November, even as he leaves open the possibility that his next chapter could be mowing lawns in Shreveport instead of running the House floor.
