Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky is the only Republican so far to publicly commit to opposing the re-election of Speaker Mike Johnson to his leadership post.
“You can pull all my fingernails out; you can shove bamboo up in them; you can start cutting off my fingers,” Mr. Massie, an iconoclastic libertarian, said on Thursday night. “I am not voting for Mike Johnson tomorrow.”
But a few other conservatives are undecided, and they have been meeting with Mr. Johnson in his office in the Capitol. They have been venting their frustrations with the spending drama that played out at the end of last month and demanding the speaker commit to institutional changes that would prevent G.O.P. leaders from pushing another huge spending bill on lawmakers.
Those undecided conservatives include Representatives Andy Harris of Maryland, the chairman of the hard-right Freedom Caucus; Chip Roy of Texas; Victoria Spartz of Indiana; Andy Biggs of Arizona; and Ralph Norman of South Carolina.
Adding to Mr. Johnson’s troubles is that many of those lawmakers are considered wild cards within the House Republican Conference. Both Mr. Massie and Mr. Roy campaigned for Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida in the 2024 Republican primary and have previously fended off primary threats from President-elect Donald J. Trump, who has endorsed Mr. Johnson for speaker.
“All too many of my Republican colleagues operate out of fear,” Mr. Roy said on the campaign trail in Iowa. “I fear the Lord. I don’t fear politics. I don’t fear political retribution. Worst-case scenario, I end up back in Texas? My life is pretty good.”
Mr. Biggs, the former chairman of the Freedom Caucus, has long irritated Republican leaders. He opposed Kevin McCarthy’s ascent to the speakership and voted to oust him 10 months later.
Ms. Spartz is perhaps the most unpredictable. She frequently protests what she sees as House Republican leaders’ permissive attitude toward government spending. She announced late last year that she would “not sit on committees or participate in the caucus until I see that Republican leadership in Congress is governing.” She previously announced that she would not run for re-election, only to reverse the decision. And during the election of Mr. McCarthy, she initially voted for him, only to vote “present” on a number of ballots later in the process.
