House Speaker Mike Johnson says he will keep leading Republicans if the party loses the House in November, and he remains confident they will hold power instead.
In an on-record interview near his hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana, Johnson pushed back on talk that he might walk away if voters strip Republicans of their narrow majority, telling CBS News he expects colleagues to keep him in charge even in divided government.
CBS News published the exchange first on Oct. 12, 2026, after correspondent Robert Costa pressed the speaker on his future and on whether he is ready for the harder slog of minority leadership.
Johnson did not hedge. He said his plan is to stay, lead, and win.
The questions followed a comment Johnson made last week on Fox News that fueled speculation he could step aside. He had floated, in what he now calls a joke, the idea of heading back to Shreveport and starting a lawn business if Republicans lost the House.
He waved that off as humor, not an exit plan.
"It's just hilarious,"
Johnson said, calling the line
"tongue in cheek."
He then spelled out the point he said he was trying to make about duty, faith, and the job in front of him.
"What I was trying to say to them is that throughout my whole life, my number one objective is to be of my highest and best use to God and to my country, and that's always what I've thought. And I was trying to make the point that if God has a different design, then we'll follow that. But what I believe is, I'm going to be the speaker of the House for at least two more years."
On the minority scenario itself, he left little room for rivals or a retreat.
"If, heaven forbid, we lost the majority, I would expect my colleagues would call upon me to continue to lead the conference in divided government. My intention is to stay and serve, and that's what I've been doing, as best I can. I'm not sure what the case would be for any alternative. I intend to stay and lead."
Costa asked whether Johnson has it in him to be a tough, combative minority leader if the gavel slips away. Johnson pointed to his record before the speakership and to the tone he wants to set.
He reminded viewers he was a constitutional litigator, served on the House Judiciary Committee, and helped defend President Trump through two impeachment trials. That résumé, he suggested, answers the toughness question.
"I was a litigator in my past life, constitutional law attorney. We can be tough, but we can be happy warriors. That's what Ronald Reagan was. That's what I fashioned myself as."
Johnson has led House Republicans as speaker since 2023, holding together what the CBS account described as a sometimes volatile and narrow majority. He cast the coming weeks as a full-court press, not a farewell tour.
Johnson said he has been campaigning hard in recent weeks, raising millions of dollars for Republicans this cycle, and logging the travel required to protect the majority. Before Election Day he plans to hit 40 districts across 22 states.
His message on the outcome was blunt. He said he has “no intention other than winning this majority and serving as speaker.”
"That is what's going to happen. And I'm telling you, I'm leaving it all in the field to do it."
He framed a loss as an “unlikely scenario,” while still answering the leadership question in the same breath: if it happened, he would expect the conference to keep him at the top.
November will decide whether Republicans keep the House under a Republican president, terrain that has often been rough for the party holding the White House in midterm years. CBS noted that dynamic and pointed to voter pressure from high gas and diesel prices and other national fights that have defined the cycle.
Johnson’s answer to that backdrop was not a pivot to life after Congress. It was a pledge to finish the job he took in 2023, keep the confidence of his colleagues, and treat the majority fight as winnable.
He tied the effort to the same standard he used for the lawn-business quip: be of highest use, stay in the arena, and lead the conference either with the gavel or, if necessary, without it.
Voters will settle the majority. Johnson has already settled who he thinks should run the House GOP the morning after.
