Speaker Mike Johnson is staring down a revolt from House Republican women.
Several female lawmakers have been increasingly defying Johnson, R-La., on legislative matters and lobbing public broadsides at him — including a member of Johnson’s own leadership team.
This week alone, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., launched a discharge petition to go around Johnson and force a floor vote on a congressional stock trading ban, posting on X that she’s “pissed” that leadership isn’t moving fast enough on the issue while clarifying, “I like Mike.” Johnson prefers to go through regular order, and there has been an initial hearing on the issue.
Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, the chair of House Republican Leadership, not only signed on to Luna’s petition but also publicly unloaded on Johnson over an unrelated issue in the national defense bill, suggesting in a series of social media posts that Johnson lied about the matter. The spat has seemingly since been resolved, but the bad blood between the two has long been simmering.
Asked about Stefanik’s broadsides in the Capitol on Wednesday, Johnson shrugged off the complaints and said he’s “not worried” about his standing “at all.”
“There’s 220 or so people in this conference and lots of different opinions,” he told reporters. “Everybody’s not delighted with every decision every day, but that’s Congress.”
Meanwhile, a number of high-profile Republican women are fleeing the House for other opportunities, weighing retirement or quitting Congress early, fueling some concern that GOP women’s ranks could be depleted in the next Congress.
Taken together, it’s a sign of growing frustration among some House GOP women, who have less representation in leadership and hold only a single elected committee gavel. Two House Republican women, who spoke to NBC News on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal matters, said that they feel they have been passed over for opportunities, that their priorities don’t always get taken as seriously under Johnson’s leadership and that they believe that could be driving some of the exits and public fights with him.
“It’s a sea change — for the worse. And it’s one of the many reasons that numerous House Republican women are running for higher office,” one of the GOP women said, accusing Johnson of “undercutting” some Republican women…
Thanks DSD….