Johnson brushes off GOP's electoral rout in VA, NJ

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday downplayed Republican defeats in New Jersey and Virginia, highlighting that none of the races represented considerable upsets and that most of the races were in blue-leaning states.

What happened last night was blue states and blue cities voted blue,” he said, according to The Hill. “We all saw that coming, and no one should read too much into last night’s election results. Off year elections are not indicative of what’s to come. That’s what history teaches us.”

Republicans lost every statewide race in New Jersey and Virginia. Of the three contests in Virginia, only the attorney general's race was expected to be competitive due to Attorney General-elect Jay Jones's scandal involving text messages in which he fantasized about the death of an opponent's children.

He won, nonetheless.

"[W]e’re looking forward to a great election running on our record, and we’re going to get all of our incumbents reelected and we’re going to add to the number here," he said of the 2026 midterms.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.