Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) will retire from the House months before his term ends next year, setting up a scenario in which House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) could have a one-seat majority.
Gallagher will step down effective April 19, making him the latest in a string of Republicans who have announced they would leave the House early and further narrowing the party’s slim control in the lower chamber. Gallagher’s departure also deals a blow to GOP leadership because the Wisconsin Republican sits as the chairman of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.
“Four terms serving Northeast Wisconsin in Congress has been the honor of a lifetime and strengthened my conviction that America is the greatest country in the history of the world,” Gallagher said in a statement. “I will forever be proud of the work I did on the Armed Services and Intelligence Committees, chairing the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, and chairing the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.”
Gallagher’s departure will bring a math problem for Johnson as the chamber seeks to fill a slew of other vacancies announced over the last few months. As of next week, there are four empty seats vacated by Reps. Kevin McCarthy, Bill Johnson, Brian Higgins, and Ken Buck, whose last day in office was Friday.
With Gallagher’s absence, that brings the Republicans’ majority to 217-213 as of April 19. That will be further narrowed for Republicans after the special election for Higgins, which is expected to favor Democrats, bringing their majority to just 217-214, meaning Republicans can only afford to lose one vote on any given measure to pass the lower chamber.
With that temporary one-vote majority, Johnson could see himself pushed into the corner as he faces his own motion to vacate that was filed by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on Friday. A motion to vacate requires only a simple majority to pass, meaning if all Democrats voted to oust Johnson, it would only take two Republicans to join in order to pass.
However, it’s not clear how much support there is among Democrats to oust another speaker. A handful of lawmakers have already signaled they would back Johnson if such a measure were put on the floor, accusing Republicans of seeking to throw the House back into a period of leaderless chaos.
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But Johnson will face a series of challenges as he looks to advance more must-pass bills over the next few months, such as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Johnson has not publicly responded to news of Gallagher’s early retirement, and a spokesperson for the speaker has not responded to a request from the Washington Examiner.
