Loyal California Republican Kevin Kiley criticizes House speaker: 'Failure of leadership'

David Lightman, The Sacramento Bee on Nov 20, 2025

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WASHINGTON — Rep. Kevin Kiley, usually a reliable Republican vote in Congress, Thursday criticized House Speaker Mike Johnson for a “failure of leadership.”

Kiley, R-Roseville, has been disappointed for months that Johnson, R-La., has not had the House act on Kiley’s bill to bar mid-decade redistricting.

“I don’t know what his motivations are, but (he) has been unwilling to do what was best for California and best for the country,” Kiley said at his weekly Capitol Hill news conference.

Johnson’s office had not responded to a request for comment by deadline.

Kiley is facing a tough re-election test, thanks to Proposition 50’s redrawing of congressional boundaries to favor Democratic candidates.

The second-term congressman, who represents a district that sprawls from the Sacramento suburbs, across the state and down to Death Valley, was easily re-elected in 2024.

Under the new map, his current district is fragmented across six different districts. Kiley reiterated Thursday he plans to run again, but does not know where.

Is Kiley breaking with the GOP?

Kiley has been a Republican stalwart, and remains so, but lately has been inching away from GOP orthodoxy.

Throughout the 43-day federal government shutdown that ended last week, Johnson did not bring the House back into a voting session, saying it had already passed a reopening plan. Kiley repeatedly urged Johnson to bring the House back anyway to conduct its regular business. Kiley worked in Washington regularly during the shutdown.

Kiley introduced his anti-gerrymandering bill this summer. “You can stop (Gov. Gavin) Newsom’s Redistricting Sham and save our taxpayers $250 million by bringing my mid-decade redistricting bill to the Floor,” Kiley wrote on X this summer.

Kiley talks with Johnson

The congressman said Thursday he spoke with Johnson a few days ago and, “I’m continuing to implore him to do the right thing here, which is to use his authority to advance legislation that will stop this whole redistricting war in these tracks or, at the very least, he could take a public position against it.”

In recent months, though, Kiley said Johnson “could have had a meeting of the minds with Hakeem Jeffries…unfortunately he has done none of that. And I think it’s been a failure of leadership on his part.” Jeffries, a New York Democrat, is the House minority leader.

Johnson has maintained Republicans will gain an advantage from the redistricting wars. That’s not a good reason to pursue this strategy, Kiley said.

“ You shouldn’t do something that’s bad for the country and bad for democracy just because it’s going to help your party.,” he said.

The redistricting drama began earlier this year when, prodded by President Donald Trump, Texas Republicans redrew that state’s map to help elect five more GOP members of Congress. California answered with Proposition 50, and other states have been trying to redraw their lines.

But Texas’ action was thrown into turmoil earlier this week, when a federal court blocked the new map from taking effect, saying it hurt Black and Latino voters. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is appealing the ruling to the Supreme Court.

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