House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is amassing a huge amount of money for the midterms.
Johnson pulled in a whopping $30 million in the third quarter, pushing his war chest to a staggering $156 million this cycle. That’s the most ever raised by a Republican speaker or leader at this point in an election cycle, Fox News reported Thursday.
The haul tops Johnson’s own previous best. In the third quarter of 2024, he took in $27.5 million, then a record for a GOP speaker heading into Election Day, The Daily Wire reported.
The cash keeps piling up. Back in July, Johnson announced a $19.1 million second quarter, which pushed his 2026 total past $53 million and his cycle total to $135 million. Since grabbing the gavel more than two and a half years ago, he has generated more than $200 million for House Republicans. That doesn’t count the hundreds of millions more stacked up at the Congressional Leadership Fund, the super PAC he backs.
“While Democrats lunge further into disarray and to the far-left, House Republicans are united, well-funded, and on offense to win the midterms,” Johnson said in July.
He isn’t sitting on the money, either. Johnson has spread more than $91 million across the party, including $46 million to the National Republican Congressional Committee, $21.5 million to shore up vulnerable incumbents, and $7 million to boost GOP challengers, according to Axios.
Republicans are clinging to a razor-thin majority, which stood at 218-212 with four vacancies this summer. Democrats need to flip only a handful of seats to grab back the speaker’s gavel.
History isn’t on Johnson’s side either. The party holding the White House has lost House seats in 90% of midterms since 1946, and forecasters are predicting a backlash that could cost the GOP around 28 seats.
There is also a stampede for the exits.
As of October 2, 71 members of Congress — 11 senators and 60 House members — aren’t seeking re-election, according to Ballotpedia. Republicans account for 44 of them. NPR counts 73 lawmakers retiring or running for another office, and says 99 seats will have new occupants compared with the start of 2025. That total includes members who died or resigned, plus 13 incumbents who lost primaries, among them Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY).
According to Brookings, the only cycle in the past century with more lawmakers heading for the exits was 1992. The open seats mean Republicans will be defending them without the built-in edge of an incumbent, which makes the climb steeper.
Johnson has built a financial fortress. On November 3, voters will decide whether the midterm curse can be broken.
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