U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks during a news conference following a meeting of the House Republican Caucus at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, U.S., Tuesday, September 1, 2026.
Eric Lee | Bloomberg | Getty Images
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has committed to a peaceful transfer of power after the election, calling concerns that President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans could challenge the results if Democrats take control of Congress “absurd.”
“We’re going to follow the Constitution. The Constitution says that when a state certifies the election of members of Congress, then they have to take the oath of office. That’s what I’ll do on January 3rd to everyone who’s there,” Johnson said Tuesday during a campaign stop with New York Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, a week before the November 3 midterm elections, in response to a question from MS NOW. “I may not like some of these results, but it’s our system. And to suggest otherwise is absurd.”
Democrats and voting rights advocates are bracing for potential challenges if control of the House changes, as is widely expected, or if control of the Senate, which is more closely contested, changes. Republicans have a majority in both houses of Congress.
Trump, who has continued to falsely claim that widespread fraud cost him the 2020 election, has fueled these fears by calling for “nationalizing” the election earlier this year and repeatedly questioning the security of mail-in voting, while suggesting that non-citizens could vote in numbers large enough to skew the results. His administration sued California earlier this month in a fight against non-citizen voting.
The Justice Department also sued Alaska last week to block certification of its results over voter confusion. Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan will appear on the ballot alongside Daniel J. Sullivan, a retired teacher who Republicans say is only on the ballot as a spoiler candidate.
Johnson, who following the 2020 election was a key ally of Trump’s Congress in its quest to overturn the results, said Tuesday that questions about a peaceful transfer were “a little silly.”
“Of course we will have a peaceful transfer of power. But there will be no transfer, because we are going to retain the majority and I am going to be the speaker of the House and I will keep my hands steady at the wheel,” Johnson told reporters.
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