Johnson job performance slips among Republicans: survey
Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) job performance is slipping among Republicans, according to a new survey.
An Economist/YouGov poll conducted between Dec. 21 and Dec. 24 and released on Thursday found 49 percent of Republicans strongly or somewhat approved of Johnson’s handling of his job as Speaker.
A separate 20 percent said they didn’t approve of his job performance while 30 percent said they were unsure.
A similar poll conducted between Dec. 8 and Dec. 10 found 60 percent of Republican respondents said they approved of the way Johnson handled his job as Speaker, while 12 percent said they disapproved and 28 percent said they were not sure.
Johnson is fighting to keep the Speaker’s gavel on Friday as House members convene to elect their leader in the lower chamber. The polling was conducted before President-elect Trump endorsed Johnson in the race.
The Louisiana Republican can only afford one defection from within his party – assuming there’s full attendance and every member votes for a candidate. That means he needs 218 votes to keep his job as Speaker, though at least one member, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), has said he won’t vote for him, raising questions about who else may defect against Johnson.
On Friday, some Republicans were saying that Johnson would not receive the votes to be elected Speaker unless Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a conservative critical of the spending deal approved by the House in December, was made chair of the House Rules Committee.
Trump touted Johnson in a post on his Truth Social before the vote on Friday, writing “Good luck today for Speaker Mike Johnson, a fine man of great ability, who is very close to having 100% support. A win for Mike today will be a big win for the Republican Party, and yet another acknowledgment of our 129 year most consequential Presidential Election!! - A BIG AFFIRMATION, INDEED. MAGA!”
The House can’t conduct any official business before electing a Speaker. One immediate deadline looming over Congress is certifying the 2024 election results on Jan. 6.
In 2023, Republicans took 15 ballots to name a Speaker in Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who was later ousted by members of his own party.
The Economist/YouGov Poll was conducted from Dec. 21 and Dec. 24 with 1,582 adults completing the full survey. The poll was weighted with 31 percent identifying as Democrats and 32 percent identifying as Republicans. The margin of error is 3.3 percentage points.