|

In a Fox News interview that aired earlier this week, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) indicated that he might retire from the House of Representatives altogether if Republicans failed to retain control of Congress following this year’s midterm elections.

The statement is a stark departure from his previous comments this year, in which the speaker indicated little possibility of the GOP failing to defeat Democrats in this fall’s contests.

“Heaven forbid, if we lose this majority or whatever, I don’t know what my next chapter of life is,” Johnson said, adding:

If God moves on our hearts and says we should, you know, go back to my hometown of Shreveport and start a lawn business, I’ll do that with equal fervor.

In the same interview, Johnson indicated that he wouldn’t take any responsibility for his party losing to Democrats. Instead, he said he’d blame messaging issues or the media for giving voters the wrong idea about what both parties stood for.

“If we lose the House, it will be because the people were misled,” Johnson said.

Johnson’s remarks disregard issues like affordability, the war on Iran, Trump’s abuse of presidential powers, and the GOP’s support for the unfettered construction of AI data centers — all issues that are on voters’ minds this election season that Republicans have failed to adequately address.

Earlier this year, Johnson indicated that he saw no way for Republicans to lose the midterms, justifying his confidence by citing his religious beliefs.

“We’re gonna win the midterms,” Johnson said in a podcast interview this summer to a Christian nationalist host. “I’m very bullish about the outcome. We talk about it all the time, and with each passing day, I’m more confident.”

“This is a God thing,” Johnson said, claiming that the “power of prayer” would help Republicans prevail.

The American public will likely not miss Johnson very much, if he is indeed ousted from the speakership and chooses to retire. According to an Economist/YouGov poll from last month, Johnson’s favorability rating is a net -15 points.

The latest polls on congressional elections indicate that voters want a change in Washington. According to an average of polling data compiled by FiftyPlusOne, Democrats are currently favored to win the midterms, with 51.1 percent of voters backing that party’s nominee in a generic ballot question, versus just 43.4 percent supporting Republicans, as of Friday morning.