Mike Johnson loses another Republican as California congressman bolts from GOP

House Speaker Mike Johnson, the Republican leader from Louisiana, is already governing with one of the narrowest majorities in modern congressional history. On Monday, that majority became even more precarious.

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California Rep. Kevin Kiley announced on Monday that he is leaving the Republican Party and will run for reelection as an independent, introducing new uncertainty into a chamber where Johnson can rarely afford to lose even a single vote. The departure further tightens an already razor-thin margin in the House. Republicans currently hold 218 seats to Democrats’ 214, with three vacancies.

Kiley, a two-term congressman representing Northern California, said his decision reflects frustration with the rigid partisan structure that now dominates Congress, Axios reports. While the move does not automatically place him in opposition to Republican leadership, it means Johnson can no longer assume his support.

Kiley said the change would take effect immediately, though he plans to continue caucusing with Republicans.

Even before the announcement, Kiley said that he had not always been a reliable vote for GOP leadership. “I don't know if he would tell you I have been so far,” Kiley said when asked whether Johnson could count on his support. The California lawmaker noted that he has already voted against several procedural rule votes, the party-line measures that typically determine whether legislation even reaches the House floor.

The switch comes as the political terrain in Kiley’s home state shifts beneath him. Mid-decade redistricting dismantled the Republican-leaning district that helped send him to Congress in 2022, leaving him to compete in a far more Democratic seat.

“Since gerrymandering seeks to elevate partisanship above everything else in our politics,” he said on a press call Monday, “the best way to counter gerrymandering and its insidious impacts on democracy is simply to take partisanship out of the equation.”

The shift is notable given Kiley’s standing inside conservative politics just months ago. During his 2024 reelection campaign, the LGBTQ+ conservative organization Log Cabin Republicans endorsed him, calling him “a steadfast ally of the LGBT community” and praising his “common-sense leadership in Washington.”

At the same time, Kiley has also aligned himself with Republican efforts targeting transgender participation in sports. In 2025, he joined Michigan Rep. Tim Walberg in demanding that the California Interscholastic Federation explain its policy allowing transgender students to compete in athletics consistent with their gender identity under California law. In a letter to the organization, the lawmakers argued the policy “defies federal law” and threatens fairness in girls’ sports, urging the federation to change course.

Those debates have become a defining cultural fault line inside the modern Republican coalition.

For Johnson, however, the implications are less ideological than mathematical. With a majority so thin that a handful of defections can stall legislation, the speaker has spent much of his tenure counting votes one by one.

With Kiley stepping outside the party structure, that arithmetic, never easy, just became a little harder.