McCarthy Resignation Leaves GOP Majority at 7 Seats (3 Votes)

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and the Republican Party have a real problem in the House right now.

The Caucus is as divided as it has ever been, and due to the expulsion of former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) and the retirement of former Speaker McCarthy (R-CA), that majority is now down to only seven seats.

With a total of 220 Republicans and 213 Democrats, Johnson has only three votes to work with any legislative vote.

Shrinking Majority

Johnson is already on thin ice with the Freedom Caucus, which is livid that Johnson passed the defense budget bill while not making changes to FISA rules.

There are quite a few members who are also upset over the fact Johnson chose to send everyone on Christmas recess rather than stay in session and work on the spending bills that are due in just a few days before the government shuts down.

The news does not get any better for Johnson because the special election to fill Santos’ seat takes place on February 13, and that seat is likely to flip blue, reducing the edge to only six seats.

Most of us expected McCarthy not to run for re-election, but the decision to step down was selfish, and it was likely done for McCarthy to join Trump’s campaign.

I am already on record believing that McCarthy will snuggle up to Trump during the campaign in the hopes of landing a high-ranking cabinet position. And I believe McCarthy will wind up being Trump’s Chief of Staff if Trump manages to win the primary and general election.

This is not only a problem for Johnson, but it will also impact other House leadership positions, such as Majority Leader Scalise (R-LA) and House Majority Whip Emmer (R-MN).

The job of both of those positions is to ensure that when legislation is presented, it will have enough votes to pass in favor of the majority, and in 2023, both of them failed miserably.

Let’s just hope they all learned their lesson in 2023 and rely on Republicans instead of Democrats to get legislation passed.