{"id":14432,"date":"2025-10-14T23:16:46","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T23:16:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/this-house-republican-has-become-mike-johnsons-biggest-internal-headache\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T23:16:46","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T23:16:46","slug":"this-house-republican-has-become-mike-johnsons-biggest-internal-headache","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/this-house-republican-has-become-mike-johnsons-biggest-internal-headache\/","title":{"rendered":"This House Republican has become Mike Johnson\u2019s biggest internal headache"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

California Rep. Kevin Kiley<\/a> was already one of Speaker Mike Johnson<\/a>\u2019s loudest Republican critics \u2014 even before the government shutdown<\/a> started earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Now two weeks into the standoff, Kiley made clear in an interview Tuesday he has no plans to quiet down on Johnson\u2019s handling of the shutdown, the future of crucial health insurance subsidies and the GOP\u2019s controversial redistricting campaign that has suddenly put Kiley\u2019s own political future in doubt.<\/p>\n

Having already called Johnson\u2019s strategy of keeping the House out of session during the shutdown \u201cembarrassing<\/a>,\u201d Kiley reiterated Tuesday that it was the \u201cwrong decision\u201d and threatens to prolong the impasse.<\/p>\n

Rank-and-file members could add pressure to find \u201csome sort of agreement\u201d that would end the shutdown, Kiley said. \u201cWhen people are just not here, and those conversations aren’t taking place,\u201d he added, that allows the two sides\u2019 rigid positions \u201cto calcify.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kiley, who was in Washington Tuesday and appeared at an otherwise sparsely attended pro forma afternoon session, added that the no-show strategy<\/a> also means House Republicans are \u201cagain falling behind\u201d on the full-year spending bills that could be part of a lasting solution to the shutdown: \u201cAll the things we were supposed to be getting done and working on are not getting done.\u201d<\/p>\n

So far Johnson has shown no sign of budging. He reiterated on a private House Republican call Tuesday members are to stay in their districts on a 48-hour notice to return, and members of his circle have argued members such as Kiley are among a small minority of GOP dissidents.<\/p>\n

But Kiley has emerged as an outspoken and fearless critic who has been willing to break ranks at a crucial moment for the GOP leadership<\/a>. The 40-year-old former state legislator from the Sacramento area says he is simply trying to represent his constituents and push for a solution to the damaging showdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou’re not going to, you know, persuade anyone to do things differently, to keep your feelings quiet,\u201d he said, comparing Johnson\u2019s closure of the House to the cancellation of the legislative session in California during the early Covid crisis.<\/p>\n

A Johnson spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment on Kiley\u2019s criticism.<\/p>\n

Inside the House GOP, however, some see payback for what appears to be an existential threat to Kiley\u2019s congressional career: the partisan redistricting fight now playing out across the country.<\/p>\n

After President Donald Trump persuaded Texas Republicans to redraw their House maps ahead of the 2026 midterms, California Gov. Gavin Newsom launched a campaign to do the same in his own state. Should a Democratic-backed ballot measure<\/a> pass next month, Kiley and several of his GOP colleagues in the state\u2019s delegation are almost certain to be drawn out of their seats.<\/p>\n

Kiley has urged Johnson and fellow House Republicans to pass legislation barring the redrawing of maps outside of the usual decennial Census-driven process. \u201cJust because a party thinks that they can gain an advantage by redrawing lines all of a sudden doesn’t mean they should do it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But Johnson has so far refused to act.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s extremely disappointing to me that he did not do the right thing in advocating for our members and protecting the House as an institution,\u201d Kiley said of Johnson, noting that the two have spoken<\/a> about the topic.<\/p>\n

Still, Kiley\u2019s criticism of the speaker has gone well beyond the redistricting dispute and even the tactical decision to keep the House out of session \u2014 a move Johnson has undertaken in a bid to force Senate Democrats to pass the stopgap spending bill Republicans, including Kiley, voted for last month.<\/p>\n

Kiley has also broken with the bulk of his Republican colleagues in saying the GOP should broach a deal with Democrats on extending key health insurance subsidies<\/a> as a way to end the shutdown. That\u2019s something Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune have explicitly ruled out as part of any shutdown solution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is going to need to be a deal on that issue \u2014 I don’t think that there’s any doubt about that,\u201d Kiley said of the subsidies, which are set to expire Dec. 31. \u201cSo insofar as there needs to be a deal anyway, if we can try to reach at least the beginnings of one now as a way to get out of the shutdown \u2026 I don’t know why we shouldn’t at least explore that possibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also waded into another sensitive matter by pushing for Johnson to swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.), whom Johnson has refused to seat<\/a> until the shutdown ends. Once a member, she had pledged to be the 218th signature on a discharge petition forcing a floor vote to release Justice Department documents related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n

Kiley has not signed the discharge petition but said he would be \u201cinclined\u201d to vote for the bipartisan Epstein bill should it come up for a vote.<\/p>\n

Democrats have dealt with internal dissension, as well: Rep. Jared Golden<\/a> of Maine and Sens. John Fetterman<\/a> of Pennsylvania and Catherine Cortez Masto<\/a> of Nevada have backed the GOP-led House stopgap bill<\/a>. But none has been anywhere as vocal as Kiley in criticizing their leadership.<\/p>\n

While GOP leaders have been keenly focused on presenting a united front against Democrats\u2019 shutdown demands \u2014 and have placed calls to some unhappy members \u2014 Kiley said he hasn\u2019t gotten similar pressure from party brass.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo such requests,\u201d he said, adding that they would not stop him from speaking out in any case.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

California Rep. Kevin Kiley was already one of Speaker Mike Johnson\u2019s loudest Republican critics \u2014 even before the government shutdown started earlier this month. Now two weeks into the standoff, Kiley made clear in an interview Tuesday he has no plans to quiet down on Johnson\u2019s handling of the shutdown, the future of crucial health […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14432\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}