Speaker Mike Johnson is hanging on to his GOP majority by a thread as he faces tough maneuverings to fund the government after parts of it shut down over the weekend.
House Republicans’ already slim margin dropped by another seat Monday night after the swearing-in of Democratic Rep. Christian Menefee, who won Texas’ blue 18th District special election runoff on Saturday. The House Republican majority now stands at 218-214, meaning leadership can afford to lose only one GOP member for party-line votes.
Menefee’s Houston-area seat had been vacant for nearly a year, giving Johnson and Republican leadership a little more wiggle room to muster support for partisan votes. Now, three vacancies remain in the House: New Jersey’s 11th District, for the seat Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill vacated after she was elected governor; Georgia’s 14th, where Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene resigned on Jan. 5; and California’s 1st, where the GOP incumbent, Doug LaMalfa, died on Jan. 6.
The earliest any of those vacancies can be filled is after the solid-red Georgia district holds its special election on March 10. That also depends on how quickly Johnson swears in new members — prior to Menefee, Johnson held off seating Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., for seven weeks in the fall, keeping the House out of session and citing the government shutdown at the time.
Menefee won the special election runoff triggered by the death of Rep. Sylvester Turner last March. In his previous job as Harris County attorney, Menefee filed several lawsuits against the Trump administration and has vowed to be a “fighter” in Congress.
“My general approach is, if [Donald] Trump doesn’t care about the rule of law, you have to be the opposition party,” he said in an interview before the runoff. “You have to stop him.”
Much of Johnson’s reign as speaker has been defined by a razor-thin majority, causing him to bank on near-perfect vote attendance and last-minute maneuvering to clear once-routine hurdles. With such a tight margin, members are empowered to hold up floor action to receive assurances from leadership.
Those tricky dynamics were already brewing ahead of votes on a bill expected Tuesday that could end the ongoing partial government shutdown. A handful of Republicans led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., had said they intended to hold up floor action to reopen the government as they push for action on an unrelated voter ID measure.
But after meeting with President Donald Trump, Luna said she was satisfied that her key demand would be met in the Senate, pointing to an attempt to force Senate Democrats into a “standing filibuster.”
Jackie Wang and Daniela Altimari contributed to this report.
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