Speaker Mike Johnson: Hardly Reassuring

Speaker Mike Johnson is in a bind. His party’s sacrifice of former representative George Santos’s seat in last night’s special election not only truncates the GOP’s already paper-thin House majority, it further confirms that Democrats can rely on a dedicated base of high-propensity voters — a contingent that used to favor Republicans. That’s depressing, and Johnson has to buck up his deflated conference. But the way in which he chose to do that was not at all convincing:

None of this is especially reassuring if you devote any thought to their implications.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.

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Speaker Mike Johnson is in a bind. His party’s sacrifice of former representative George Santos’s seat in last night’s special election not only truncates the GOP’s already paper-thin House majority, it further confirms that Democrats can rely on a dedicated base of high-propensity voters — a contingent that used to favor Republicans. That’s depressing, and Johnson has to buck up his deflated conference. But the way in which he chose to do that was not at all convincing:

None of this is especially reassuring if you devote any thought to their implications.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.