Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to hold together a House majority that feels like it is slipping through his fingers. Each week brings another resignation rumor, another warning about special elections, another sign that the ground beneath him is getting less stable. What used to be talked about as ordinary Capitol Hill drama now feels like something closer to a slow unwinding.
His most recent test of support inside the Republican conference ended with him still in the job, but there was nothing comforting about how it played out. Some members hesitated, others complained in private, and everyone could see how thin the margin has become. With only a few seats separating Republicans from losing control of the House, Johnson governs knowing that a single retirement or a single upset loss could suddenly change everything. That knowledge hangs over almost every big decision.
Marjorie Taylor Greene’s departure did not just create another vacancy, it left behind a stinging critique of Johnson. In The Daily Beast, Eleanor Clift wrote that Greene’s challenge “exposed the weakness of both puppet and puppet master,” and argued that Johnson is in danger of becoming the first speaker to lose his majority outright if special elections break the wrong way. She recalled John Boehner’s decision to step aside in 2015, after years of internal rebellions, as he walked out of Congress singing “Zippity-doo-dah.” The implication for Johnson was hard to miss, there may be no cheerful exit if things keep moving in this direction.
Greene herself has predicted that Republicans will lose the House in 2026 because they chose to line up behind Johnson. Coming from someone who still speaks to a large part of the party’s base, her warning adds to the sense that the conflict is not just about tactics, it is about what kind of party Republicans want to be, and who they trust to lead it.
Massie just dropped the hammer on Mike Johnson:
“He’s trying to say the rich, powerful men who flew to Epstein Island are the victims now. The only way a ‘Christian man’ can stand up there and sell a lie like that is if he’s already decided in his head that protecting them is… pic.twitter.com/VhtMVbjSAe
— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) November 18, 2025
While Johnson grapples with that argument inside his own ranks, another pressure point is emerging outside the building. Democrats are starting to perform better in places that once felt out of reach. Races in red states are no longer formalities and require real attention with the Dem surge. The Tennessee 7th District, where Donald Trump won by more than 20 points, has suddenly tightened. Polls showing a competitive race there have shaken Republicans, not because one seat would change the entire national map by itself, but because of what it would say about the mood of the electorate. A loss in a district like that would narrow Johnson’s majority even further and turn every future vote into a cliffhanger.
Inside the House, conversations with Republicans often circle back to the general feeling of uncertainty. Some worry that the party is moving toward a difficult election year without a plan to prevent more losses. Others say the party has become so fractured that any speaker would struggle. Even Johnson’s defenders admit that he is trying to manage a group that no longer shares a common sense of direction.
His future depends on whether he can convince his colleagues that he is not just presiding over a slow erosion of their power.
