Washington (AP) – House Speaker Mike Johnson is asking his fellow Republicans to stop airing their frustrations in public and bring their complaints to him directly.
“They’re going to get upset about things. That’s part of the process,” Johnson told reporters Thursday. “It doesn’t bother me. But when there is a conflict or concern, I always ask all the members to come to me, not to go on social media.”
They are always ignoring him.
Fissures within the GOP conference were sharp this week as a member of Johnson’s own leadership team openly accused him of lying, rank-and-file Republicans acted unilaterally to force votes and a leadership-backed bill failed. It is all underlined by growing worries that the party is on course to lose its majority next year.
“I certainly think the current leadership and specifically the speaker need to change the way they approach the job,” GOP Rep. Kevin Kiley of California said Thursday.
Kiley, who has grown vocally critical of Johnson after the statewide GOP redistricting campaign returned to California, said the speaker has been critical of rank-and-file Republicans, so he “needs to be willing to accept any criticism that comes with the job.”
“And I think, unfortunately, there was enough reason for criticism,” he added.
GOP lawmaker asks, ‘Why should we legislate through discharge petitions?’
For the first part of 2025, Johnson held together his slim Republican majority in the House to pass a number of President Donald Trump’s priorities, including his massive spending plan and tax cuts.
But after Johnson kept members out of session for nearly two months during the government shutdown, they returned anxious to work on priorities that had been delayed for months — and with the reality that their time in the majority may be running out.
The first was a high-profile discharge petition to force a vote on the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, which succeeded after reaching the threshold of 218 signatures. Other legislators are launching more petitions, a step that was seen as a great affront to the party leadership.
“The discharge petition, I think, always shows a bit of frustration,” said GOP Rep. Dusty Johnson of South Dakota.
Another discharge petition on a bill to repeal Trump’s executive order to end collective bargaining with federal labor unions reached the signature threshold last month, with support from seven Republicans.
And this week, GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida filed an early discharge petition for a bill to ban members of Congress from trading stocks. A number of Republicans have already signed, in addition to the Democrats.
“Anxious is what happens when you get nervous. I’m not nervous. I’m pissed,” Luna wrote on social media late Thursday, responding to management comments that she was overly anxious.
GOP Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina signed both Luna’s petition and the one to release the Epstein files. She told reporters on Thursday that she expressed her frustrations directly to Johnson in a phone call, and in what she described as “a deeply personal, deeply passionate letter, which we are legislating with a discharge petition.”
“We have a very small majority, but I want President Trump’s executive orders to be codified,” Mace said. “I want to see his agenda implemented. Why should we legislate through discharge petitions?”
Speaker Johnson’s own leadership team is going after him
At the center of Johnson’s demands for members to bring their concerns to him privately instead of on social media is the chairwoman of the House Republican leadership, New York Rep. Elise Stefanik.
Angry that a provision she defended was not included in a defense authorization bill, Stefanik blasted Johnson’s claims that he was unaware of the provision as “more lies from the Speaker.” She conducted a series of media interviews that criticized Johnson, including one with The Wall Street Journal in which she said he was a “political novice” who would not be re-elected speaker if the vote were held today.
Johnson told reporters Thursday that he had a “great talk” with Stefanik the night before.
“I told her and I said, ‘Why don’t you come to me, you know?'” Johnson said. “So we had some intense fellowship about that.”
Asked if she had apologized for calling him a liar, Johnson said, “Um, you’ll ask Elise about that.”
Illinois Representative Mary Miller issued a statement Thursday providing support for Johnson, saying that while there are differences among members “our mission is bigger than any one individual or heading.”
Democrats, who had their own leadership critics, reveled in the GOP’s disarray. House Republican leaders tried to muscle through an NCAA-backed bill to regulate college sports after the White House approved it, before support within Republican ranks crumbled. Some GOP lawmakers made it clear they had bigger priorities before the end of the year.
“It’s not that Congress can’t legislate, it’s House Republicans who can’t legislate. It’s the gang that can’t legislate straight. They continue to take the ‘my way or the highway’ approach,” said House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
There is underlying GOP worry about losing the chamber in 2026
All eyes in the US House were on a special election Tuesday night in a Tennessee district that a Republican had won in 2024 by nearly 21 percentage points, with Trump carrying the area by a similar margin.
Republicans hoped the contest would help them regain momentum after losing several marquee races across the country in November. Meanwhile, Democrats argued that keeping the race close would signal a strong political wind at their backs ahead of next year’s midterms, which will determine control of both chambers.
Republican Matt Van Epps ultimately won by nearly 9 percentage points.
“I think that district that went from over 20 points a year ago to go down to nine, should be a wakeup call,” said GOP Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska.
He argued that the Republicans need to “get some economic progress, like immediately”, adding that “the president and his team have taken care” that the tariffs are not driving economic growth.
“I just feel like they’re going to have to come out of their bubble,” Bacon said of the White House. “Get out of your bubble. The economy needs to improve. Fix Ukraine and we need a temporary fix for health care.”
Bacon is among a growing number of House Republicans who have announced they will retire after this term. Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia abruptly announced last month that she would resign in January, citing several reasons, including that “the legislature has been on the sidelines” this year.
Those withdrawals increase the GOP’s challenge to keep the House, as the party now has to defend more open seats. Republicans also saw a redistricting battle — fueled by Trump’s pressure on Texas Republicans and then more states — partially backfire. In November, California voters handed a victory to Democrats by approving a new congressional map.
“You’re living in a fantasy world if you think this redistricting war is what’s going to save the majority,” said Kiley, who is now at risk of losing his seat after redistricting in California.
He added, “I think what would make a much bigger impact is if the House played a proactive role in bringing forward legislation that is important.”
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Associated Press reporter Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.