House Speaker Johnson Says He Is Disappointed by Midterm Results: Vows to Take Back the House in 2028
Shreveport, Louisiana — U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson told supporters on election night, November 3, at the Captain Shreve Ballroom of the Shreveport Convention Center that he was disappointed by the Republican Party's loss of its House majority in the midterm elections, but vowed that Republicans would take back the House in 2028. Johnson himself won a sixth term that night with 58.5 percent of the vote, against about 23 percent for Democrat Conrad Cable.
"To every American disappointed by tonight's results — I'm disappointed too, but we are never discouraged, because we live in the greatest nation in the world," Johnson told the crowd. He said Republicans had known from the first day of the election that keeping the House majority would require defying more than a century of midterm history, in which the sitting president's party almost always loses seats.
"Republicans will not be deterred by the outcome of one election," Johnson said. "We double down. We will continue pressing forward with our agenda of common sense and our vision to make America great again. And come 2028, we will take back the House, and we will finish this job." He cautioned that polls had not yet closed in some western states and counting was still under way — "It'll be a long night" — and said he would speak in more detail about the midterms in the coming days once final results were known.
The New York Times estimated that Democrats would pick up about 254 House seats, well above the 218 needed for a majority, and several outlets projected that Democrats would control both chambers of Congress. Johnson raised more than $526 million for Republican candidates during the cycle, but the party still lost several House races in states such as Florida that had been redistricted to favor Republicans. A senior Republican leadership aide told the Washington Examiner that Tuesday's results were a "disaster" for the party and worse than Republicans had expected.
Johnson said serving as the 56th Speaker of the House had been "the honor of my life, not a position we ever aspired to or expected to have." He did not confirm his plans in the minority; on the Democratic side, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is widely expected to take the speakership.
Source: Washington Examiner
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：美国众议院议长 Mike Johnson 官方肖像。公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Official portrait of U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
