Keep Speaker Johnson

Just a few short months ago, the conventional wisdom was that Republicans could lose the House even as they might win the presidency and Senate. Now, it is clear that the House will stay in Republican hands, and the House majority should stay with Speaker Johnson.

Johnson is in an unenviable position. He is the proverbial dog that caught the car. After Kevin McCarthy's ouster, the GOP tried multiple times to find a new Speaker. Only after multiple votes did the House GOP settle on Johnson.

Johnson is the first evangelical Speaker of the House who has, since his early days in politics, been an ardent opponent of abortion and an ardent champion of small government. Johnson was the first Speaker of the House to align with social conservatives explicitly and was likewise committed to fiscal conservatism.

Unfortunately for a small minority of the House, Johnson has to represent both the whole House and the entire diversity of the Republican Party in the House. It is no easy job. Despite repeated stories of his demise, ouster, and coups against him, Johnson has not only weathered the storm but also emerged on the other side with a House Republican majority intact.

Conservatives in the House will not get a Speaker with a more conservative disposition than Johnson. But, undoubtedly, the few who wish to hijack the slim majority for their own PR are rumored to have a candidate in the waiting to oust Johnson. For what?

Johnson has already had to navigate an unwieldy and impossibly small majority. He’s done so with grace and class. He has Donald Trump’s trust, and, with Trump in the White House and a Senate Republican majority, he has greater flexibility to move right.

Back in June, progressives were already fuming that Johnson had plans to pass Trump’s agenda in 2025. In fact, Johnson was already thinking ahead to a trifecta in Washington, and his advanced thinking earned him scorn and scoffing from Republican Senators who couldn’t dare dream as Johnson dreamt.

This is the one man who has invested a great deal of time thinking about what might be possible in a 2025 Reconciliation package. When others on the right ridiculed the idea as too ridiculous to consider, Johnson made plans.

Taking him off the field now would set back the Trump agenda and the House Republicans’ ability to get anything done.

Keep Mike Johnson in the Speaker’s Chair. Let’s see what he can do with a Republican Senate and Trump in the White House.

On a Personal Note

These past two weeks have been rough. My wife has dealt with our sick dog, Maggie, while I have been all over the place dealing with the election and its aftermath.

Yesterday afternoon, I got home from work, and my wife had received a call from the oncology specialist looking at our dog. Maggie’s bloodwork showed she had multiple types of lymphoma and, even with chemotherapy, all we would be doing was buying her time.

We had to make the difficult decision to let Maggie go. She died peacefully in my wife’s arms last evening. Y’all, it was for the best, but that was really rough. Thanks so much for all the prayers.