Speaker Johnson pleads with Republicans to keep concerns private after tumultuous week

Increasingly, they’re ignoring him.

Cracks inside the GOP conference were stark 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 faltered. It's all underscored by growing worries that the party is on a path towards losing the majority next year.

“I certainly think that the current leadership and specifically the speaker needs to change the way that he approaches the job,” GOP Rep. Kevin Kiley of California said Thursday.

Kiley, who has grown vocally critical of Johnson after the GOP's nationwide redistricting campaign backfired in California, said the speaker has been critical of rank-and-file Republicans, so “he needs to be prepared to accept any criticism that comes with the job.”

“And I think, unfortunately, there’s been ample reason for criticism,” he added.

GOP lawmaker asks, ‘Why do we have to legislate by 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 and tax cut plan.

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 backlogged for months — and with the reality that their time in the majority may be running out.

First was a high-profile discharge petition to force the vote on releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files, which succeeded after it reached the 218-signature threshold. Other lawmakers are launching more petitions, a step that used to be considered a major affront to 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 that would 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 brought a long-anticipated discharge petition for a bill to bar members of Congress from trading stock. A number of Republicans have already signed on, in addition to 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 leadership 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 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, that we are legislating by discharge petition.”

“We have a very slim majority, but I want President Trump’s executive orders codified,” Mace said. “I want to see his agenda implemented. Why do we have to legislate by discharge petitions?”

Speaker Johnson's own leadership team is going after him

At the center of Johnson's pleas for members to bring concerns to him privately instead of on social media is the chairwoman of House Republican leadership, New York Rep. Elise Stefanik.

Angered that a provision she championed wasn't included in a defense authorization bill, Stefanik blasted Johnson's claims that he wasn't aware of the provision as “more lies from the Speaker.” She conducted a series of media interviews criticizing Johnson, including one with The Wall Street Journal in which she said he was a “political novice” who wouldn't be reelected speaker if the vote were held today.

Johnson told reporters Thursday that he had a “great talk” with Stefanik the night before.

“I called her and I said, ‘Why wouldn’t you just 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 ask Elise about that.”

Illinois Rep. Mary Miller released a statement Thursday providing support for Johnson, saying that while there are differences among members “our mission is bigger than any one individual or headline.”

Democrats, who have had leadership criticisms of their own, have reveled in the GOP's disarray. House Republican leaders attempted to muscle through an NCAA-backed bill to regulate college sports after the White House endorsed it, before support within Republican ranks crumbled. Some GOP lawmakers pointedly said they had bigger priorities before the end of the year.

“It's not that Congress can't legislate, it's House Republicans that 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 unease about losing the chamber in 2026

All eyes in the U.S. 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. Democrats, meanwhile, argued that keeping the race close would signal strong political winds 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 do think to have that district that went by over 20 points a year ago be down to nine, it should be a wakeup call,” said GOP Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska.

He argued that Republicans need “to get some economic progress, like immediately,” adding that “the president and his team have got to come to grips” that tariffs are not driving economic growth.

“I just feel like they’re going to have to get out of their bubble,” Bacon said of the White House. “Get out of your bubble. The economy needs improving. Fix Ukraine and we do need a temporary health care fix.”

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 declared last month that she would resign in January, citing multiple reasons, including that “the legislature has been mostly sidelined” this year.

Those retirements add to the GOP’s challenge in holding the House, as the party must now defend more open seats. Republicans have also seen a redistricting battle — sparked by Trump’s pressure on Texas Republicans and then more states — backfire in part. In November, California voters handed Democrats a victory by approving a new congressional map.

“That’s living in a fantasy world if you think that this redistricting war is what’s going to save the majority,” said Kiley, now at risk of losing his seat after redistricting in California.

He added, “I think what would make a lot bigger impact is if the House played a proactive role in actually putting forward legislation that matters.”

Associated Press reporter Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.