Speaker Mike Johnson’s next steps on government funding fight could determine whether he gets to keep leading the House GOP
CNN
Speaker Mike Johnson has a decision to make.
Speaker Mike Johnson has a decision to make. With the election looming and another government funding deadline just around the corner, the speaker must find a way in the next several days to both govern for the country, avoid a shutdown that could cost his members in swing districts and keep the right flank of his party pacified enough to not imperil his own political future. It’s a tightrope he’s walked time and time again in government funding showdowns in the last year, on Ukraine aide and when it came to reauthorizing a key national security program, but this time the course Johnson charts could determine whether he can stay atop his leadership post after the election. “I don’t think he thinks about his speakership first. I think he thinks about the (future) of the country first. But let’s be honest. With him, it’s a very difficult needle to thread,” Rep. Lisa McClain, a Republican from Michigan, told CNN. While many of his allies are bullish on House Republicans’ chances to keep the House in November, they acknowledge there are still a lot of variables that need to play out. If Republicans keep the House, Johnson will need to secure 218 votes to become the speaker in January, a major lift if Johnson once again has a slim or even shrunken majority. Johnson for his part has maintained widespread popularity. Even many of the Republicans who once privately questioned whether Johnson was too green for the job have argued he’s grown quickly into it, taking on his right flank and surviving leadership challenges his predecessor could not weather.
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