Johnson can only lose one GOP vote after Democrat Analilia Mejia sworn in
Speaker Mike Johnson’s historically narrow House majority has been further eroded, leaving the GOP with even less room to maneuver as the party faces legislative challenges ahead.
Johnson can now handle just a single GOP defection in party-line votes and still pass the legislation after the House. Analilia MejiaThe New Jersey Democrat was sworn in.
The partisan breakdown includes 217 Republicans, 214 Democrats, one independent and three seats. California Rep. Kevin Kiley, an independent, was elected as a Republican and continues to caucus with the GOP, although officially he is. left the party earlier this year.
The weakened House majority comes as Republican leaders hope to soon pass a bill with only GOP votes to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and border patrol during the ongoing Department of Homeland Security shutdown.
Special elections for two of the open seats will be held on June 2 and June 16. Both regions are in California; Republicans are preferred in the first, Democrats are preferred in the second. A special election has not yet been scheduled for the third vacancy in a Republican-leaning district of Texas.
At the start of the 119th Congress, Johnson faced the narrowest House majority in nearly 100 years. That narrow margin has created a major challenge for congressional Republicans trying to enact Trump’s legislative priorities, leaving little room for error.
Republicans gain 220 seats in the House of Representatives In the November elections, Democrats won 215, the most narrowly divided Parliament The majority since the beginning of the Great Depression, almost a century ago.
But the partisan split at the start of the new session of Congress stood at 219 to 215, as former GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida He chose not to return to Congress.
A majority of all members present and voting is required for a bill to pass in the parliament. If every member comes to vote and all 435 seats are filled, the magic number is 218, but this could change if there are vacancies or absenteeism. A tie vote in the parliament would fail.
Ranking of the majority of the House of Representatives in history
The last time a minority held 215 or more seats in the House was in the 1930 elections, when Republicans won 218 seats, Democrats won 216 seats, and the Farmer-Labor Party won one seat.
Held during the early years of the Great Depression, the 72nd Congress officially began in March 1931, but did not actually meet to conduct legislative business until months later, in December 1931.
By the official start of the term, in March, the Parliamentary margin had narrowed even further; There were 217 seats for Republicans, 216 seats for Democrats, one seat for the Farmer-Labor Party and one seat vacated due to the death of a Republican.
However, in an unusual turn of events, the partisans dispersed. has changed significantly When Congress convened, a series of additional deaths and subsequent special elections handed control of the chamber to Democrats, although the margin remained narrow.
Accordingly Historical records of the houseThe 65th Congress had the closest party split in American history, but in this case the partisan divide was so narrow that neither party gained an outright majority in the House of Representatives, based on election results. 215 seats left for Republicans and 214 seats left for Democrats. As a result, a handful of third-party MPs played a decisive role when the Assembly met to elect the speaker.
Difficulties created by a narrow majority
Johnson won the presidency in a thrilling vote at the beginning of the 119th Congress.
The election took place with a majority of 219 to 215; this meant that Johnson could only lose a single Republican vote if every lawmaker voted and all Democrats voted against him.
The partisan distribution in the House has changed several times since then, due to vacancies created by the deaths and resignations of MPs.
Johnson has had a little more breathing room at times, and Republicans in Congress have continued to pass important legislation, especially Trump’s. Big package of tax and spending cuts in July – but there were also difficulties in combining their conferences.
GOP leaders lost two votes to Republicans on final passage of the tax and spending cuts bill in the House. Representatives Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania voted against the measure along with Democrats.
This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.
CNN’s Veronica Stracqualursi and Zach Wolf contributed to this report.
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