Johnson Invokes Faith to Defend Thin GOP House Majority

House Speaker Mike Johnson told the Associated Press he believes Republicans will keep their narrow House majority in the Nov. 3 midterms, reaching for scripture to explain why. “We run to win, and that’s biblical: You run to win,” he said at a campaign stop in Bangor, Maine. “And I believe that we will.” He also said he prays for God’s will, adding, “I believe God’s will is for us — and not the communists — to be in charge of America.”

Democrats have momentum, voters are frustrated, and the margins are razor-thin. Johnson cited crowds he said he’d seen on the trail, the quality of GOP recruits and incumbents, and nearly half a billion dollars he’s raised for House Republicans. He said he’s on track to visit more than 20 states and 40 congressional districts through November.

A Majority Built on Narrow Votes

Johnson has led the House for three years, holding together one of the narrowest majorities in modern times as prices stay high and the Iran war drags on. He led passage of a bill packed with major tax breaks and social-service cuts, often without a vote to spare. Republican Rep. Mark Harris of North Carolina, who joined the campaign swing, said, “So many times everybody had written off, there was no way he was going to be able to pull off a particular vote. Yet he always seems to pull out the win in the end.”

Johnson’s own forecast is modest. “It’s not going to be a giant majority,” he said. “But I genuinely believe that we will have a working majority.” If Republicans hold power, he said, their plans include “less taxes, less regulation,” and President Trump “wants to go big for his legacy.” Johnson also said he’s preparing changes to House rules to “make the machinery work smoother.”

Congress and the Iran War

Congress hasn’t authorized the war in Iran. Johnson recently sent lawmakers home early rather than face a vote, forced by Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as lawmakers tried to halt the war. Asked about criticism that Congress has yielded power as Trump expands executive authority, Johnson was blunt. “Absolute nonsense,” he said. “We did not yield Article 1 authority to the president. We used our own,” he added, to advance Republican priorities over Democratic opposition.

Critics disagree. Johnson once gave Trump a speaker’s gavel as Trump signed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” into law, a gesture critics saw as surrendering the authority of a coequal branch of government. Before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, five years ago, Johnson organized support for Trump’s false claims of widespread fraud in the election Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

Loyalty, Purges and the Democratic Response

According to the AP report, the White House has returned to disarray after relative stability over the previous two years. Trump has purged House Republicans seen as disloyal, including Massie, who lost his primary, and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who retired early after breaking with Trump over the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Johnson, meanwhile, routinely takes 1 a.m. calls from the president.

Johnson’s campaign message relies on a label. He portrays Democrats as “communists,” even though only a handful of far-left liberals backed by the Democratic Socialists of America are on the ballot. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the House Democratic leader who’d be in line for the speaker’s gavel if Democrats win, is preparing a first-100-days agenda for a new Congress that would convene in January.

A handful of seats in a shrinking number of competitive districts are expected to decide the majority. Johnson, a former constitutional lawyer first elected alongside Trump in 2016, is expected to win his own reelection. He jokes that if Republicans lose, he might return to Shreveport, Louisiana, and start a lawn-care business.

Why This Matters:

The midterms will decide whether Congress acts as an independent check on the president or keeps ratifying his agenda. Johnson’s record includes a bill with major tax breaks and social-service cuts, a war Congress hasn’t authorized, and a vote he avoided by sending lawmakers home early. Voters facing high prices have a direct stake in who writes the next budget. Johnson’s claim that God wants one party in charge also blurs the line between faith and partisan politics in a country with many faiths and many views. With control likely hinging on a handful of competitive districts, a small number of ballots could determine how much oversight the executive branch faces for the next two years.