Frustrations are mounting in the Republican conference despite the GOP controlling the House, the Senate, and the White House. There is a growing feeling — from women specifically — that they just can’t get anything done.
The target of members’ ire? House Speaker Mike Johnson. Multiple high-profile congresswomen have spoken out publicly about their dissatisfaction, accusing him of “undercutting” the women of the House. Some have even chosen to retire and seek other opportunities.
So why are these women mad, and can Johnson right the ship? Today, Explained co-host Noel King talked to NBC News reporter Melanie Zanona to find out.
Below is an excerpt of their conversation, edited for length and clarity. There’s much more in the full episode, so listen to Today, Explained wherever you get podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and Spotify.
Who is speaking out against Mike Johnson and why?
Starting with [Rep.] Marjorie Taylor Greene, her complaints with Johnson are similar to what she’s been saying when it comes to Donald Trump. She’s extremely frustrated that they haven’t been putting more bills on the floor that are actually related to some of the things they campaigned on, particularly the affordability issue.
Then there’s [Rep.] Elise Stefanik, who really raised some eyebrows when she went on the record with her criticisms in a Wall Street Journal interview. Her criticisms of Johnson were about his political acumen. She says he’s not a good strategist. She said that if a vote were held today, she doesn’t think he would be elected speaker again, which is a pretty bold statement coming from someone on Johnson’s own leadership team.
[Rep.] Anna Paulina Luna is a little bit of a different case. She’s been advocating for specific pieces of legislation that she wants to get to the floor. She believes that Mike Johnson has made promises behind closed doors and then not kept those promises when it comes to actually putting those bills on the floor. The prime example of this is a stock trading ban that she’s been advocating for. She does not want members of Congress to be able to trade stocks. There is huge bipartisan support for that bill. Johnson initially suggested that he would be willing to put a bill like that on the floor, but in Anna Paulina Luna’s view, she believes that it’s being slow-walked.
What are Mike Johnson’s views on women, and are they mainstream?
He recently did a podcast with Katie Miller. That is Stephen Miller’s wife — Stephen Miller, of course, is a White House aide. It was a much more casual setting. He was with his wife, Kelly, during the interview. He made an offhanded comment about how he would want [Rep.] Lisa McClain — that’s the conference chair, the one woman in leadership — to be the one to cook his Thanksgiving dinner.
Now, in his defense, Lisa McClain does talk a lot about cooking, and she kind of presents that sort of persona herself. But for some Republican women, that really rubbed them the wrong way. And you combine that with the fact that women feel frustrated about not being elevated and having this bottleneck in terms of leadership, and I think that is why you’re seeing this explosion of frustration right now.
One of the less sympathetic responses I’ve seen to the Republican women who have been complaining is that the Republican Party is very sexist: “How did you guys not know that?” Is there a measure of truth to the idea that the Republican Party traditionally sidelines women?
Traditionally, the Republican Party did not put an emphasis on trying to elect women. They always said, “We don’t want to play identity politics; we just want the best candidate to win.”
But at some point, Republicans realized, hey, sometimes the best candidate is a woman, and they’re not getting the same opportunities as men, particularly in primaries. This is where it’s a huge issue, because women do have young kids and families, and they face bigger challenges when it comes to running. It’s very difficult to run a campaign. They need resources. They need fundraising. They need party structural tools and resources behind them in order to succeed in a primary and get over that finish line. And Republicans, for a long time, were not placing an emphasis on that.
But in recent years, there was a recognition — and Elise Stefanik actually played a huge part in this — that they need to elect more Republican women and that women can actually flip key vulnerable seats, which they did after 2018. We saw historic lows in the number of Republican women represented in Congress, and the party made a huge effort to recruit more women. A lot of them ended up winning. A lot of them were responsible for flipping key seats in subsequent cycles.
But I think, traditionally, Republicans have been so scared of saying, “We’re purposely trying to elect women. We don’t play identity politics; that’s what Democrats do.” And that’s why, even though there are more Republican women than there have been in the past, they are still way behind where Democratic women are.
How is Speaker Mike Johnson responding to all of this?
He’s pretty frustrated. I’ve heard behind the scenes that he’s been complaining about some of the reports, and he’s gone on to defend himself.
He’s been asked directly by reporters — including some of my colleagues after I wrote the story — about his posture toward women. And he’s vehemently denying that he’s marginalizing women, that he looks at or treats them any differently.
But we have not seen him take any actual steps to try to alleviate some of their concerns.
Johnson has a really narrow majority on Capitol Hill. It would seem to me that he can’t afford to make enemies.
He absolutely can’t afford any enemies in this conference, and he already has one in Marjorie Taylor Greene, who votes against everything. And another in Republican Rep. Thomas Massie. He pretty much votes no on almost everything that comes to the floor, including voting against Mike Johnson’s speakership. When you do the math, you can’t really afford any other Republicans voting no.
That being said, Johnson has a degree of confidence because no one expected him to get the job in the first place. He defied expectations there. He has been able to usher some really big bills through the House, including — as Trump calls it — the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” the big tax law they passed that also included Medicaid cuts. And the primary reason he feels confident is that he still has Donald Trump’s backing.
Because of that, I do believe Johnson feels like he’s okay for now. But he knows better than anyone that every single vote counts. Getting that majority next year is going to be critical — not just winning the majority, but making sure they have a bigger margin than they have now.
