Republicans won a narrow majority in the House of Representatives in the 2022 elections, but entering an election year in 2024, that majority has been further reduced by key absences.
Three House Republicans who have left the chamber for good or for an extended period will have the GOP leading with as slim as a 218-213 majority in the coming weeks. Here are the three Republican absences that will be hurting the margin by which the GOP controls the House.
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Former Republican California Rep. Kevin McCarthy
McCarthy resigned from the chamber effective Dec. 31, 2023, only months after the former House speaker was ousted as presiding officer of the chamber by a group of eight House Republicans and all House Democrats.
Following a turbulent 2023, which included governing the chaotic GOP House majority for nine months, the longtime California Republican opted not to run for reelection in 2024 and not to finish his term in the 118th Congress. A special election in his safe Republican district in the coming months will determine his successor.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA)
Scalise will not be in Washington, D.C., for all of January as he undergoes part of his cancer treatment.
The Louisiana Republican’s office announced last week that he will undergo a stem cell transplant after successfully completing chemotherapy in December. His absence is expected to last only until February.
Rep. Bill Johnson (R-OH)
Johnson is leaving the House of Representatives in the coming weeks to become the president of Youngstown State University.
He will resign from the House effective Jan. 21, earlier than the expected March 15 start date, for his new position. Johnson joins several other prominent House Republicans who have announced they will not seek another term in 2024, but he is one of the few who are leaving before the end of the term.
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The narrower majority for the GOP comes as Congress needs to pass government funding before it expires on Jan. 19.
The Senate experienced its own woes with absences in 2023, when, at one point, the late Democratic California Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Sens. John Fetterman (D-PA) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY) were all absent.