WASHINGTON — Speaker Mike Johnson is staring down a revolt from Home Republican girls.
A number of feminine lawmakers have been more and more defying Johnson, R-La., on legislative issues and lobbing public broadsides at him — together with a member of Johnson’s personal management staff.
This week alone, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., launched a discharge petition to go round Johnson and power a flooring vote on a congressional inventory buying and selling ban, posting on X that she’s “pissed” that management isn’t transferring quick sufficient on the problem whereas clarifying, “I like Mike.” Johnson prefers to undergo common order, and there was an preliminary listening to on the problem.
Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, the chair of Home Republican Management, not solely signed on to Luna’s petition but in addition publicly unloaded on Johnson over an unrelated challenge within the nationwide protection invoice, suggesting in a sequence of social media posts that Johnson lied concerning the matter. The spat has seemingly since been resolved, however the dangerous blood between the 2 has lengthy been simmering.
Requested about Stefanik’s broadsides within the Capitol on Wednesday, Johnson shrugged off the complaints and stated he’s “not anxious” about his standing “in any respect.”
“There’s 220 or so folks on this convention and plenty of totally different opinions,” he advised reporters. “Everyone’s not delighted with each determination on daily basis, however that’s Congress.”
In the meantime, quite a few high-profile Republican girls are fleeing the Home for different alternatives, weighing retirement or quitting Congress early, fueling some concern that GOP girls’s ranks could possibly be depleted within the subsequent Congress.
Taken collectively, it’s an indication of rising frustration amongst some Home GOP girls, who’ve much less illustration in management and maintain solely a single elected committee gavel. Two Home Republican girls, who spoke to NBC Information on situation of anonymity to debate delicate inner issues, stated that they really feel they’ve been handed over for alternatives, that their priorities don’t all the time get taken as severely underneath Johnson’s management and that they imagine that could possibly be driving among the exits and public fights with him.
“It’s a sea change — for the more severe. And it’s one of many many causes that quite a few Home Republican girls are working for larger workplace,” one of many GOP girls stated, accusing Johnson of “undercutting” some Republican girls. “I’m involved there shall be much less Republicans in Congress, interval, subsequent 12 months, and positively meaning there shall be much less Republican girls.”
The second lady stated: “We aren’t taken severely. You’ve girls who’re very achieved, very profitable, who’ve earned the advantage, who aren’t given the time of the day.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia — who blindsided Johnson together with her current resignation announcement, in keeping with a GOP supply acquainted with the state of affairs — has gone as far as to publicly accuse the present male GOP leaders of bias, telling The Washington Put up in a current interview she believes Republican girls have been “marginalized.”
Greene and Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, who has additionally been a vocal critic of Johnson, are scheduled to satisfy subsequent week to speak about their shared frustrations, in keeping with a supply acquainted with the matter.
A spokesman for Johnson’s political staff stated in an announcement that he strongly helps the ladies in his convention and has been working exhausting to recruit much more girls to the Home, noting that a number of who’re on the Speaker’s Joint Fundraising Committee have obtained a median of almost $400,000 for his or her campaigns to date this 12 months.
“Not solely has Speaker Johnson elevated girls in management, he has additionally helped recruit and assist girls working for workplace,” the spokesman stated. “This cycle, now we have girls working in 10 of the highest districts we’re watching. Our staff is in contact with them and others throughout the nation — simply as we have been in 2024 — as Speaker Johnson works to recruit sturdy conservatives who can win, assist us develop our majority, and assist us ship on our agenda.”
The vast majority of chairmanships and management positions are elected by your complete convention, however there are a couple of situations during which Johnson could make unilateral appointments or create new roles.
He appointed Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, 83, to steer the Guidelines Committee, making her the one feminine chair within the Home. He additionally put three Republican girls on the Intelligence Committee, together with Stefanik, whom he additionally made the chair of Home Republican Management after her U.N. ambassadorship nomination was pulled.
Nonetheless, there are zero elected feminine committee chairs — and a few Republicans privately blame Johnson for that. Throughout a GOP steering committee assembly at the start of this 12 months, Johnson spoke favorably of Rep. Brian Mast of Florida, who was working for the International Affairs Committee chairmanship in opposition to Ann Wagner of Missouri. Some within the room interpreted that as Johnson’s signaling his choice, however Johnson insisted he wasn’t purposely making an attempt to tip the scales. Mast gained.
Republicans have lengthy struggled with elevating girls. A Republican lady has by no means served larger than because the GOP convention chair. That place, which is fourth-ranking within the majority and third-ranking within the minority, is held by Lisa McClain of Michigan. McClain nominated Johnson for the speakership.
McClain stated in an announcement that it’s an “absurd suggestion” to suggest that Johnson hasn’t achieved sufficient to advertise GOP girls.
“Because the Home’s highest rating lady, the Speaker has handled me with nothing lower than respect. He values my opinion, not as a girl, however as a trusted colleague,” she advised NBC Information in an announcement. “Driving an pointless divide over gender is a Democrat tactic, and Republicans can be silly to provide in to this left-wing framing.”
Flooring issues
In current weeks, delicate points associated to girls have pitted Republican girls in opposition to their very own management.
4 Republicans — Mace, Greene and Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Lauren Boebert of Colorado — have been concerned in a discharge petition to power a flooring vote on releasing the Jeffrey Epstein information, saying they need to assist ship justice for the ladies the late financier sexually abused.
Nevertheless it was the three Republican girls who confronted the brunt of a stress marketing campaign from each the White Home and Johnson to drop off the petition. Johnson stated he was in opposition to the discharge petition as a result of he was involved about defending the identities of the feminine victims, though a lot of them had advocated for the discharge of the information.
The discharge petition in the end succeeded final month, and when the vote end result seemed inevitable, President Donald Trump then determined to get behind the problem. It handed with only one no vote, and Trump signed it into legislation.
The identical month, one other divisive challenge got here to the ground — and it was as soon as once more predominantly Republican girls who broke ranks with social gathering management.
Mace pressured a vote on a decision to censure fellow GOP Rep. Cory Mills of Florida, partially over his alleged misconduct towards girls. A decide granted a restraining order that an ex-girlfriend had been searching for, alleging Mills had harassed her and threatened her with blackmail and revenge porn.
Mills has denied any wrongdoing and has vowed to adjust to the Home Ethics probe, saying on the Home flooring, “I imagine all of the accusations and false issues being stated shall be confirmed to be completely false in some ways, and I’ve the proof and receipts and look ahead to working with them.”
Eight Republicans voted with Democrats in opposition to a GOP movement to kill the decision, six of them girls: Mace, Boebert, Greene, Luna, Kat Cammack of Florida and Harriet Hageman of Wyoming.
Mace additionally wrote a letter to Johnson elevating issues about Mills however stated she by no means obtained a response.
Johnson has argued he ought to let the investigative course of play out, because the Ethics Committee has created a subpanel to probe the allegations in opposition to Mills. However some girls have been upset along with his response when NBC Information pressed them concerning the accusations at a information convention in October. Johnson known as Mills a “trustworthy colleague” after which, rising annoyed with reporters for persevering with to ask questions on Mills, prompt they “speak about some issues which can be actually critical.”
Future GOP ranks
A minimum of 4 GOP girls gained’t return within the subsequent Congress, elevating the chance that the variety of Home Republican girls may truly decline after the 2026 midterms. Greene is resigning, Stefanik and Mace are working for governor, and Rep. Ashley Hinson of Iowa is working for the Senate.
Greene and Stefanik are prolific fundraisers, and Stefanik particularly has labored to recruit and increase feminine GOP candidates via her PAC.
Hinson has additionally been seen as a rising star within the social gathering since she flipped a Democratic-held Home seat in 2020. That was a banner election cycle for Home Republican girls, whose ranks greater than doubled from a low level of simply 13 after the 2018 midterms.
There are 33 feminine Republicans within the Home, together with two nonvoting members, in contrast with 96 Democratic girls. The variety of GOP girls within the Home has declined barely for the reason that report variety of 36 set in 2023.
“The departures of those girls, significantly within the Home, makes returning to or exceeding the report for Republican girls within the Home harder,” stated Kelly Dittmar, director of analysis and a scholar on the Middle for American Girls and Politics on the Eagleton Institute of Politics.
Whereas the variety of GOP girls who’re retiring remains to be comparatively small, Dittmar stated a single loss is felt “that rather more” as a result of Republican girls are already beginning at low ranges of illustration.
“There’s a lot we don’t learn about whether or not or not this shall be a very good 12 months for Republicans or Democrats. However actually, from all we all know traditionally, it’ll take a very good 12 months for Republicans and a excessive stage of Republican girls working, which have been the circumstances in 2020, to make sure that you possibly can make up for these losses and possibly even exceed,” she stated.
Candidates are nonetheless contemplating and launching campaigns, so it’s not clear but what number of races will embody Republican girls.
Maggie’s Listing, a gaggle that helps GOP girls for workplace, introduced Wednesday that it’s endorsing 4 extra Home candidates, together with two in Republican-leaning districts: state Rep. Shannon Lundgren in Iowa’s 2nd District, which Hinson is vacating to run for the Senate, and former Rep. Mayra Flores, who’s difficult Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez in Texas’ thirty fourth District.
The group additionally backed three candidates for governor, together with Stefanik, bringing its 2026 endorsements to date to 27 GOP girls, together with 18 Home candidates.
Former Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, a nationwide spokesperson for Maggie’s Listing, stated she was assured that the variety of GOP girls in Congress would “keep regular.”
Carroll stated Johnson has been supportive of their efforts, and he appeared on the group’s fundraiser in Washington, D.C. However she stated the social gathering has extra work to do to assist feminine candidates, saying, “We nonetheless must show ourselves over and over.”
“On the Republican facet, they attempt to, I suppose, avoid identification,” Carroll added later. “And on the Democrat facet, they don’t care. They are going to embrace, in the event that they’re pushing for extra girls to be elected, then that’s the place the mantra will go and that’s the place the cash will go and that’s the place the power would go.”
Successful for Girls, a gaggle that additionally helps GOP girls and has an excellent PAC to spice up its endorsed candidates, can also be centered on recruitment. Government Director Meredith Allen Dellinger stated Successful for Girls has already met with 60 potential candidates throughout 32 states and is endorsing contenders like lawyer Jessica Hart Stein and Military veteran Alex Mealer, who’re working in ruby-red Texas districts.
“Since moving into this battle in 2019, the variety of Republican girls serving within the Home has greater than doubled and as we speak now we have a report variety of Republican girls within the U.S. Senate. That progress is actual, however there’s extra work to do, which is why we’re closely centered on recruitment this cycle,” Dellinger stated in an announcement, describing Stein and Mealer as candidates who “embody principled, options‑oriented conservatism and the management our social gathering must construct a sturdy Home majority.”
And whereas varied GOP teams are engaged in supporting feminine candidates, Dittmar stated an absence of focused infrastructure throughout the social gathering itself is a “continued and chronic downside” for Republican girls seeking to develop their ranks.
“There’s simply opposition to it, like there’s simply each ideological opposition, strategic opposition to it,” Dittmar stated, including that Republican girls have pushed efforts to assist feminine candidates themselves.
The Nationwide Republican Congressional Committee additionally had an initiative within the 2014 election cycle dubbed “Venture GROW,” geared toward recruiting and empowering feminine GOP candidates, however that program didn’t final lengthy.
“All these efforts have simply actually struggled to remain,” Dittmar stated. “And once more, I don’t put it on the ladies. I believe it’s the social gathering general that’s not seeing this as a precedence.”
[/gpt3]
