During his years as a lawmaker — first in the Pennsylvania General Assembly, then in the U.S. House of Representatives — Charlie Dent had a reputation for being a moderate Republican. And when he resigned from the U.S. House in 2017, Dent wasn't shy about criticizing President Donald Trump's influence on his party.
The Allentown native hasn't grown any less critical of Trump and the MAGA movement since then.
During a November 28 appearance on MS NOW (formerly MSNBC), Dent predicted that 2026 will be a chaotic and challenging year for Republicans — including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana). Johnson, Dent stressed, is facing a variety of challenges, from the Jeffrey Epstein files to health care.
"Any time you're a speaker with a very slim majority," Dent told MS NOW, "life is really difficult because everybody can more or less torture the speaker for whatever they want. When you need a slim majority of 218 and you can only spare to lose two or three votes, guess what — you have two or three people on any given day who feel like they're powerbrokers and can torture him. And that's what (Johnson is) dealing with."
The ex-GOP congressman added continued, "He partly put himself in this predicament…. He's got a majority, but he doesn't have a governing majority. The only time he can really get anything done is when the president weighs in, and he has to subordinate himself to the president in so many ways."
Dent predicted that many House Republicans won't seek reelection in the 2026 midterms.
Dent argued, "Well, I wouldn't be at all surprised if you'll see a significant number of members deciding not to run because of just what happened in the most recent off-year election. So I think there is going to be a bit of a rush to the exits. I think most Republican members clearly understand that they are going to be running into some really difficult gale force winds. And why stick around if you're going to be in the minority?"
The Never Trump conservative continued, "If I had to handicap today, yes, Democrats will win the majority. I couldn't tell you by how much. But it seems clear that's likely to be the case — and that Speaker Johnson will no longer be speaker. So I think it's going to be a rough road for Republicans…. It's clear there's a lot of frustration within the House Republican conference."