Thomas Massie says he will not vote for Johnson as House Speaker next month

Kentucky GOP Rep. Thomas Massie on Wednesday stated that he would not be voting for House Speaker Mike Johnson to retain the speaker's gavel next month, becoming the first Republican lawmaker to publicly defect.

The House is scheduled to vote for its next speaker on January 3, and the majority of Republican lawmakers are expected to vote for Johnson. However, with a slim majority in the next Congress, only a handful of Republicans can afford to vote for someone else without delaying the electoral process, and no candidate has emerged so far to challenge Johnson for the gavel. 

Massie, who has been a staunch critic of the speaker, did not indicate who he would endorse instead, but his announcement comes a day after congressional leadership unveiled a massive 1,547-paged spending bill. 

“I’ll vote for somebody else,” Massie told Politico. “I’ve got a few [lawmakers] in mind. I’m not going to say yet.” 

The Kentucky conservative also embraced the nickname "NostraThomas" after predicting that Johnson would try to cram a major spending bill through Congress ahead of the holidays, in order to avoid a government shutdown.

"People call me 'NostraThomas"' for accurately predicting [Speaker Johnson] would use the Christmas recess to force a massive spending bill through Congress," Massie posted on X. "After claiming he would not, Johnson is embracing a D.C. tradition that's nearly as old as decorating Christmas trees."

If the spending bill does pass by the Friday deadline, it would fund the federal government through March 14.

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.