Congress

Johnson tells House GOP he has no challengers for leadership race

Published

2 years ago

November 13, 2024

Speaker Mike Johnson told House Republicans behind closed doors that he doesn’t have any challengers to his candidacy right now, according to four people familiar with the matter.

The private comments come after two people familiar with the private discussions told POLITICO on Tuesday night that members of the House Freedom Caucus would not throw in a candidate but instead force an internal vote on the speakership race during a closed-door election set for Wednesday afternoon.

The decision by Johnson’s right flank came after the bloc’s members deliberated for days about whether or not to throw in an alternative candidate. As of Tuesday afternoon, they still appeared to be leaning toward throwing someone into the race.

Instead, after a closed-door Freedom Caucus meeting on Tuesday night, the group’s plan is now to force an internal vote without formally mounting a challenger. That means they would prevent leadership from allowing Johnson to be nominated for speaker by a simple voice vote — one that would have allowed him to say he was nominated unanimously. Instead, members would go ahead with the secret-ballot process, giving them the option to oppose Johnson’s speaker nomination without revealing who they are.

Despite the move, Johnson is expected to easily get the simple majority needed to become his party’s speaker nominee.

Part of the frustration from Johnson’s right is tied to a debate over the conference’s internal rules, which House Republicans are set to vote on Thursday. Rules proposals circulated on Tuesday included several amendments to the House GOP’s rules that would punish members who broke with the conference on certain procedural and leadership votes.

Johnson told Blue Light News on Tuesday that he does not support rules to punish members. But some conservatives want him to go further and actively tell his members to vote against the rules proposals during Wednesday’s closed-door conference meetings.

Congress

Inside Trump officials’ quiet maneuvering in Louisiana’s redistricting shakeup

Published

3 minutes ago

July 24, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The White House is quietly trying to discourage a candidate previously endorsed by the president from switching congressional districts in Louisiana, as the GOP looks to pick up an additional seat in the state following a freshly drawn gerrymander.

White House officials relayed in calls earlier this week that state Sen. Blake Miguez — whom President Donald Trump backed in February to run in Louisiana’s 5th District, which is being vacated by Rep. Julia Letlow — was making moves to run in the newly redrawn 6th District, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.

Republicans are seeking to flip the 6th District after the Supreme Court’s ruling striking down major parts of the Voting Rights Act allowed the state Legislature to lock in a new 5-to-1 GOP majority map. In May, state lawmakers erased Rep. Cleo Fields’ (D-La.) sprawling, majority-Black and majority-Democratic district in favor of a safely Republican one.

Miguez is facing allegations of sexually assaulting a woman in 2007. Miguez has denied the claims of sexual assault, which resurfaced in March media reports and blindsided many Trump officials, according to three other people with knowledge of the conversations.

Jon George, the White House Southeast regional political director, said in the calls this week that Trump officials told Miguez in a recent meeting he would not immediately have the president’s endorsement to enter the race for the 6th District. White House officials would continue to assess the race.

George said Trump’s endorsement of Miguez in the 5th District would not be rescinded. He said on the calls that Miguez then indicated he would still push ahead to run in the 6th District.

His campaign website is now locked and password protected.

The people with knowledge of the calls and the president’s political operations were granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. When reached for comment, a White House official — similarly granted anonymity — reiterated Trump has not pulled his backing.

“President Trump has not rescinded his endorsement of Blake Miguez. He will look at the candidate field after candidate filing if necessary, but at this point he has not made any changes nor does [he] have an intent to,” the official said. “If new information changes things, [we] will cross that bridge when we get to it.”

Miguez did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Louisiana’s redistricting transformed Fields’ district from one then-Vice President Kamala Harris carried by about 15 points in 2024 to one Trump would have won by over 30 points, according to calculations from The Downballot.

Fields announced earlier this week he will not seek reelection, instead running for the state Senate.

Trump endorsed Miguez in February to run in the 5th District, after he ended his Senate bid to help clear the field for Letlow, who was Trump’s pick to primary GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy.

The 5th District was deep red before the Legislature redrew the lines earlier this year, and remains safe Republican territory even as the boundaries shifted a bit. A slew of GOP candidates are already in the race to replace Letlow, including state Rep. Michael Echols, the majority leader of the Louisiana House of Representatives.

State. Sen. Rick Edmonds, Speaker Mike Johnson’s former pastor, and several other Republicans are either already in or taking steps to run in the 6th District. The state’s filing deadline is Aug. 7.

Liz Crampton contributed to this report.

Congress

Trump to Senate GOP: Adopt budget blueprint before August break

Published

3 hours ago

July 24, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump is ramping up pressure on Senate Republicans to quickly advance a $95 billion budget blueprint — even as the mood on Capitol Hill signals GOP senators are inclined to wait until later this year, if ever.

“I am asking that the Senate adopt a Budget Resolution, which can pass with a simple Majority, before leaving for the August recess,” Trump wrote Friday on Truth Social. “We are ready to work side-by-side with the Senate to get this done for the American People!”

House Republicans approved the budget resolution before leaving town for weeks. It’s the first step in a two-part plan to use the reconciliation process to bypass the Senate filibuster and pass billions in funding for the Iran war, farm assistance and election-related grants.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune hasn’t directly ruled out taking up the budget blueprint but warned Thursday that he doesn’t believe it currently has the votes to succeed.

“I can’t count to 50 right now on a budget resolution, but we’ll see. … The priority is funding the government, and so to me, that’s the thing we’ve got to keep our eyes on,” Thune said.

Most Senate Republicans don’t expect Thune to put the measure on the floor before the Senate leaves town in early August for its extended summer break given the deep concerns surrounding the House’s blueprint inside the GOP conference: Deficit hawks want offsets, defense and farm-state Republicans want more money for their priorities and some GOP senators aren’t convinced they should pursue a third reconciliation bill to begin with.

Even if Thune was able to overcome all of those hurdles, the Senate will need to change the resolution to add instructions for its committees to draft portions of the reconciliation measure itself — meaning the House would need to vote on the budget resolution a second time later this year to kick off the reconciliation process in earnest.

But Trump is still attempting to twist Thune’s arm. Earlier this week he urged supporters to call the senate majority leader to tell him to pass the GOP election overhaul bill known as the SAVE America Act, noting parts of it could be included under a third reconciliation bill.

Some GOP senators have pointed out, however, that the SAVE America Act would need to be ruled germane to the reconciliation process by the Senate parliamentarian, and there’s no guarantee the proposal would withstand her scrutiny. A few GOP senators have also previously voted against versions of the bill.

Senate Republicans have also tried to explain to the president for months that the bill doesn’t have the 60 votes needed to advance and that there isn’t enough support to blow up the filibuster to ram it through that way, either.

Trump’s allies expect the president to keep hammering Thune in any case — though how hard Trump pushes could depend on the outcome of the midterms.

Congress

Capitol agenda: A grueling summer campaign begins

Published

10 hours ago

July 24, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Republicans are bracing for a potentially grueling campaign trail run in August.

Members left for their districts Thursday for five weeks face-to-face with voters ahead of the looming midterms. Many acknowledge they’re going to need to ease Americans’ worries about what is beginning to look like an endless war yielding high gas prices, as well as other major affordability concerns, Mia, Meredith and Riley report.

“All of these issues will come up. I mean, Iran will absolutely come up,” Majority Leader Steve Scalise acknowledged Thursday. “Cost of living comes up. Safety and security, border security comes up. All of them come up, you know, and that’s why it’s important to remind people that we’re addressing those issues.”

Others were more blunt.

“We have a hell of a lot of work to do, that’s clear,” one House Republican, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said on their way out of the chamber.

Some are trying to paint a rosy picture to bring home of recent wins: Speaker Mike Johnson shepherded his conference this week through funding the government through Dec. 4, adopting a budget blueprint for a $95 billion party-line package and passing the annual defense policy bill.

“We’ve got a plan going into the fall,” Rep. Mike Flood said in an interview. “If you would have told me on Sunday we could get all that done with low drama, I would have never believed you.”

But each of those House bills now head to the Senate, where they are expected to hit several hurdles — assuming any of them can move at all.

Rep. Marlin Stutzman said he believed there was a “50/50” chance Senate Republicans will adopt the budget resolution in the coming weeks, “and I’m not optimistic.”

The GOP push to promote the benefits of their “One, Big Beautiful Bill” has fallen flat among Americans, too. That and Republicans’ plans to green light billions in funding to cover the military conflict in Iran has Democrats projecting confidence in their own midterm message.

“Donald Trump and Republicans have failed the American people, which is why they clearly are on the run and are on the verge of losing control of the House of Representatives,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Thursday.

Jeffries is planning to launch a new affordability “effort” on Sunday while marking 100 days until the midterm elections. Some members are feeling buoyed by polling that shows mounting frustration with the Iran war and Democrats up on a generic ballot.

But the party is facing a rocky road in August in other ways.

A handful of Democratic incumbents are facing primary challenges that threaten to distract from the party’s sales pitch of unity. Democrat-on-Democrat infighting is taking place in contests involving Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz in Florida, Ed Case in Hawaii, Shri Thanedar in Michigan and John Larson in Connecticut.

“I have to confess, I’m a little more worried about some of the folks that have primaries,” Rep. Don Beyer said. “I just hate the idea of replacing people we know can win easily in November with people who could lose.”

What else we’re watching:

— SENATE GOP DEFENDS THUNE IN TRUMP TIFF: Trump’s patience with Senate Majority Leader John Thune is wearing thin. But other Senate Republicans say the president’s still not likely to get what he wants. Trump is again pressing Thune to muscle his top legislative priority — the SAVE America Act — through the Senate, and his frustration has grown heated in recent days. But Thune has repeatedly said he doesn’t have the votes to do so, even with House Republicans handing him a fresh opportunity by passing their party-line budget plan this week that includes portions of the elections bill. Many Republicans on Thursday came to their leader’s defense, acknowledging an unwinnable standoff between the president and their 53-seat majority.

— SENATE EYES RUSSIA-IRAN SANCTIONS PASSAGE: Thune is eyeing putting legislation on the Senate floor next week to impose sanctions on Russia and Iran. The core of the measure would be Russia-focused legislation unveiled last week by Sen. Darline Graham in honor of her late brother, with Iran provisions added at the request of Trump. “I’ve been having conversations with Democrats and folks on our side, and I think we’re I think we’re homing in on it,” Thune told reporters Thursday, adding he was pushing for an agreement to expedite the process.

Mia McCarthy, Meredith Lee Hill Riley Rogerson, Sophia Cai, Jordain Carney, Alex Gangitano and Megan Messerly contributed to this report.