Most Capitol Hill senior staffers believe Mike Johnson is unlikely to be removed as speaker of the House before the end of this Congress. It’s not a commanding majority — 62% — but it signals that things may be better for the Louisiana Republican than conventional wisdom previously thought.
Last month, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) filed a motion to vacate against Johnson. Despite that setback, our Canvass respondents believed in the speaker’s staying power in the survey conducted April 1-19 in partnership with independent public affairs firm, LSG.
On April 17, Johnson pushed forward on the $95 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, an unpopular move among conservative members in his party. Johnson did this in the closing days of our survey. But a few days earlier, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries indicated that Democrats would likely save the speaker if hardline conservatives moved forward with the motion to vacate.
When we polled K Street leaders in March, 73% of them said Johnson was an ineffective speaker.
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— Robert O’Shaughnessy
