Top Republicans are looking toward the 2014 elections, assured they will expand their majority by nearly a dozen seats in the House of Representatives. But that could spell more trouble for House Speaker John Boehner.

In 2010, it was 87 freshman Republicans who gave Boehner, R-Ohio, the opportunity to grab hold of the speaker’s gavel. Yet many of those members were the same lawmakers who were immovable when it came to getting the votes needed to pass essential measures like the debt ceiling increase, the farm bill or government funding legislation.

“Boehner’s job could get tougher,” says David Wasserman, a congressional expert at the Cook Political Report. “A lot of the people coming in are question marks.”

Wasserman cited a recent interview he conducted with Louisiana state Rep. Lenar Whitney, a Republican running for Congress in Louisiana’s 6th Congressional District. In a story for The Washington Post, Wasserman wrote that of the more than 300 potential candidates he has spoken to over the years for the Cook Political Report, he had never “met any candidate quite as frightening or fact averse” as Whitney, who has made her name with a four-minute YouTube video in which she makes the case for why global warming is “a hoax.”

“Republicans might keep the House this year, but the real question is if Republicans can improve their brand ahead of 2016,” Wasserman says. “If candidates like that enter the picture and enter the Republican conference, the Republicans will have a structurally sound majority but they will also have a lot of people who will continue to hurt their party nationally even after Michele Bachmann leaves.”

To make things even harder for Boehner, some of the speaker’s top lieutenants and supporters are leaving Congress after 2014. Reps. Dave Camp, R-Mich., Mike Rogers, R-Mich., Doc Hastings, R-Wash., and Tom Latham, R-Iowa, are all calling it quits.

Still, Republican campaign leaders are gearing up to expand their majority. Experts estimate there are fewer seats in play on the congressional map this year, and Republicans are predicting a wave election in 2014 that will be much smaller than the tsunami of 2010. Yet, the party is still optimistic that growing its majority is well within reach.

Rep. Greg Walden, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, sees any Republican gains as a clear victory for the GOP.

“The Democrats are on defense and we are on offense,” Walden, R-Ore., said during a briefing with reporters Tuesday.

But Democrats are quick to point out the landscape is hardly as favorable for the GOP as it was in 2010. They argue that despite traditionally low turnout in midterm elections and the sloppy health care rollout, House Republicans' approval numbers are still in the dumps.

“It’s a tough environment, but it is not a 2010 tea party environment,” Rep. Steve Israel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said during a breakfast with reporters Tuesday.

Israel, D-N.Y., said Democrats also have found a lot of success fundraising off conservative voices in the House who aren't always in step with leadership. Most recently, calls for impeachment have been a fundraising boon for Democrats: The party raised $1 million on Monday alone.