Speaker Johnson: “Not Deterred” By Last Night’s Election Results
House Speaker Mike Johnson told RealClearPolitics on Wednesday that Democratic victories in elections last night will not deter his optimism about the 2026 midterms. “They’ve handed the keys to the kingdom to the Marxist, and he will destroy it,” Johnson said. You can listen to RealClearPolitics live each day at 11:00 a.m. on SiriusXM’s Megyn Kelly Channel 111.
SPEAKER JOHNSON: There are down-ballot effects, of course, especially in a special election. I am not deterred in any way by the effects last night. I wouldn’t say anything turned blue. I’d say it stayed blue. These were blue districts, blue states, blue areas. None of this was a surprise. What I would say is, so much is being made of this rise of Mamdani, he’s taken New York City and all of that. But look at the vote totals. I mean, I think 12% of New Yorkers voted for Mamdani That is not an overwhelming majority. He only got a little over a million votes, 1,000,036,000 votes, and there’s eight and a half million residents in New York City. So what’s going to happen is, the reason I’m optimistic is, they’ve handed the keys to the kingdom to the Marxist, and he will destroy it. Socialism never leads to lower prices and better living. It leads to human misery every single time in history that it’s been attempted, and it won’t take long for that to happen in New York City. So we will have yet another example of the failed philosophy that draws everybody back to what we stand for. And that’s the founding principles of the country. Individual freedom, limited government, the rule of law, peace through strength, fiscal responsibility, free markets, human dignity. The way to have human flourishing is to have a democratic form of capitalism. The capitalism is the thing that makes all votes rise, not government control. And we’re going to have a great example to point to in New York City as the months ahead of us unfold.
