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- On Wednesday, GOP Rep. Mike Johnson became the newest speaker of the House.
- He's succeeding former Speakers Mike McCarthy and Nancy Pelosi, fundraising powerhouses.
- Johnson, however, has never raised more than $1.3 million in any given election cycle.
During his tenure as a GOP leader, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was a highly efficient fundraiser, sending tens of millions of dollars each year to PACs supporting the Republican Party and his own campaign. Now, with new Speaker Mike Johnson at the helm, the party may grapple for some time with how opposite Johnson is from his predecessor.
In addition to its everyday role as part of leading the legislature on Capitol Hill, the speaker of the House also typically acts as a leading fundraiser for their respective political party. The two most recent speakers, McCarthy and Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, were both fundraising juggernauts when leading their caucuses.
Pelosi, for example, helped raise more than $400 million for Democrats in her twenty years of leading the party while McCarthy similarly assisted GOP PACs in raising hundreds of millions to support Republican candidates across the country.
But now, it's neither Pelosi nor McCarthy's name posted above the entrance of the speaker's office. Now, after weeks of Republican infighting amidst a new crisis in the Middle East and a looming government shutdown, the House GOP finally decided that it was Johnson who will lead the party in perpetuity.
Johnson, however, has nowhere near the fundraising experience or even name recognition as his predecessors. Since initially getting elected in 2016, the Louisiana Republican's emerged successful in all three of his reelection bids, though in one of them, he ran unopposed.
According to Federal Election Commission fundraising records, Johnson has never brought in more than $1.3 million in contributions in any single one of his election cycles. In the 2023-2024 election cycle, he's reportedly only raised $553,013 — a far cry from McCarthy's $14 million.
Not all is lost for House Republicans — Politico reported on Wednesday that McCarthy's "fundraising guru," Jeff Miller, plans to stick around and assist Johnson with the task of fundraising for more than 200 legislators, which will likely ameliorate some of the damage to the party's pockets amidst McCarthy's unexpected ouster.
Johnson's sudden rise to becoming speaker comes just over a year before the 2024 election where the Republican Party is aiming to regain control.
In an interview with Jordan Peterson just prior to the 2022 midterm elections, Johnson predicted the Republican Party would gain a "large majority" in the House and a one-to-two-seat majority for the GOP in the Senate. Neither prediction ultimately came true: Republicans only gained a very slim majority of the House and managed to lose footing in the Senate.
Less than two years later, it's now Johnson's responsibility to make sure the Republican Party remains in power. It's only a matter of time before Americans learn if it's too much of an ask.