WASHINGTON — Less than a year before the critical 2026 midterm elections, Speaker Mike Johnson is losing control of the House floor.

The Louisiana Republican suffered a bruising defeat before Thanksgiving when Donald Trump foe, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and a trio of GOP women defied Johnson and his top lieutenants and teamed with Democrats to force a near-unanimous vote to release the Jeffrey Epstein files to the public.

Seeing Massie’s huge success in getting the Epstein bill signed into law, other Republicans are now turning to that same playbook to go over the speaker’s head.

This week, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., filed a discharge petition in a bid to bypass Johnson and force a vote on a bipartisan bill that would ban members of Congress from owning or trading individual stocks. Nine other Republicans have joined Luna and signed the petition, along with six Democrats.

That’s a far cry from the 218 signatures needed to go around the speaker and force a floor vote. But the signatures are notable; it was once unheard of for members of the majority to use discharge petitions against their own leadership.

Moderate Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., a leader of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, is threatening to file his own discharge petition to impose “crushing” U.S. sanctions on Russia as Trump’s proposed peace deal to end the Ukraine war appears to be faltering. And he’s considering another one to extend expiring Obamacare subsidies unless leaders act before the Dec. 31 deadline.

“We’re not afraid to use that option,” Fitzpatrick said. “It’s not a tool of the minority — it’s a tool of the rank and file.”

On Wednesday, Johnson’s team abruptly yanked the SCORE Act — which would create federal standards for compensating student athletes — off the House floor amid opposition from a bloc of conservative Republicans led by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas. It was their most important bill of the week.

On top of that, Johnson has been contending with rank-and-file members forcing votes to censure other colleagues, with Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., even targeting a fellow Republican, Rep. Cory Mills of Florida.

Mace is part of a group of high-profile female lawmakers who’ve been slinging arrows at Johnson, lambasting his leadership and making life miserable for the speaker, who unexpectedly rose from obscurity to the top job two years ago after Kevin McCarthy was toppled by his own internal revolt.

Many of Johnson’s headaches stem from the fact that he is presiding over one of the smallest majorities in history. Since he swore in Tennessee Republican Matt Van Epps on Thursday morning, Republicans have a 220-213 edge over the Democrats, meaning Johnson can afford only three GOP defections on any bill he brings to the floor.

‘A lot of anxiety and stress’

Privately, senior Republicans point to a “confluence” of circumstances and events that has resulted in the flurry of discharge petitions and other rogue antics on the floor. Trump’s approval ratings continue to fall. Democratic candidates overperformed in recent elections in New Jersey, Virginia and Tennessee, a grim sign for House Republicans in next year’s midterm elections. Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” has not resulted in lower costs and curbing inflation. And Johnson’s decision to keep the House in recess for 54 days because of the shutdown meant less committee work and fewer bills being passed.

“The confluence is weakened political power by Trump, the result from the elections in New Jersey, New York and Virginia, and people getting anxious about the election. There’s a lot of anxiety and stress about the election, and people looking at their own districts, saying, ‘I thought things were going to be different,’” one senior House Republican lawmaker said.

“And I just think being off for 50 days, there was no continuity. Nobody was here. There was nobody like, ‘Hey, you’re doing great. Keep it up,’” the lawmaker continued. “Everyone being back in their district, there was a loneliness. A lot of members may have felt like we’re on our own.”

Johnson, a bespectacled and buttoned-up constitutional attorney, rarely appears flustered or angry. While other candidates for speaker in 2023 faced vocal opposition, Johnson catapulted to speaker from the No. 7 leadership slot, in part, because he had no enemies.

During the past two years in the role, that certainly has changed. But Johnson downplayed the drama on the floor and in his 220-member conference, saying that despite the variety of opinions and narrow margins, his party has been able to move “a very aggressive agenda on a very short time frame.”

“Sometimes there’s friction, sometimes there’s vigorous debate. That’s all part of the process. People are going to have emotions. They’re going to get upset about things. That’s part of the process. It doesn’t deter me in any way. It doesn’t bother me,” Johnson told reporters Thursday. “But when there is a conflict or concern, I always ask all members, come to me. Don’t go to social media, call me. Come by the office.”

While he has his share of detractors, Johnson, a Trump loyalist who’s been accused by Democrats of handing over too much congressional authority to the president, has an equal number of defenders.

“I support Mike Johnson and what he’s been doing. I think he’s in line with the president. I think he has the ear of the president,” Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, said. “If it’s not Mike Johnson, well, then who? … Who could get enough votes to even replace him? And quite honestly, it’s probably nobody.”

A flurry of discharge petitions

Discharge petitions rarely succeed. Only 4% of discharge petitions introduced from 1935 to 2022 were successful in bringing a bill to the floor, according to a review by the Brookings Institution. Johnson has repeatedly railed against the practice, saying they cede power — and control of the floor — to the opposition party.

“We continue to see the norms of the House diminish over time. I think that’s unfortunate,” said GOP Rep. Dusty Johnson, who is running for South Dakota governor and is not related to the speaker. “A discharge petition, I don’t think, helps the institution. … It clearly empowers the minority in what is otherwise a majoritarian institution.”

But facing fewer opportunities to secure bipartisan accomplishments, vulnerable Republicans are turning to the legislative tool to advance policy priorities they can tout back home.

On Tuesday, Luna, a Democratic target whose private investments have come under scrutiny, filed her petition on a bipartisan stock trading ban for members of Congress and their immediate family members. Reps. Fitzpatrick, Mace, Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., Eli Crane, R-Ariz., Greg Steube, R-Fla., Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., and Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, have all signed on.

It’s unclear, however, if backers of the bill will be able to secure the requisite 218 signatures, given that a large number of lawmakers hold and trade individual stocks, some in industries related to the committees on which they serve.

“Congress is infinitely broken under either party, and the committee system bogs things down,” said Burchett, the author of the underlying stock ban legislation. “This is the only way to get the bill to the floor.”

Johnson and his team were dealing with other setbacks as well this week. Leaders had to pull the SCORE Act shortly before the floor vote Wednesday after Roy, who is running for attorney general in Texas, and a handful of other Republicans remained opposed to the bill.

Earlier in the week, Roy and a band of conservative allies almost blocked a procedural rule vote that would have immediately killed the sports bill. Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., were needed to twist arms and flip votes on the floor; the rule passed 210-209. Roy and Reps. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., and Scott Perry, R-Pa., all voted no.

Roy said on X on Wednesday that the bill was “not ready for prime time” and questioned why Congress was even getting involved in trying to regulate college sports.

“There were a whole lot of no votes. It wasn’t just me,” Roy told NBC News after the bill was pulled. “Obviously, there were three of us on the rule, but there was, like, I’m not gonna give the number … There were a lot of people who were not prepared to be on this bill today.”

Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., who served as Rules Committee chairman and now is the top Democrat on the panel, said he understands Republicans who are turning to discharge petitions amid a gridlocked floor.

“They get no help from their own leadership. This place doesn’t function anymore. I mean, we reported out a rule for the six bills this week — all of them are closed, no amendments made in order. Even Republican amendments were rejected,” McGovern said in an interview outside the Capitol.

“For some Republicans, their priorities are not being addressed by their leadership, and so they’re kind of going around their leadership,” he added. “I don’t always agree with everything they’re doing, but I certainly share their frustration.”