Republicans Retain House Majority, Completing Trifecta

WASHINGTON—Republicans are officially on track to retain their majority in the House of Representatives, handing the GOP control of the White House and both chambers of Congress in the new year.

At 10:30 p.m. on Nov. 13, The Associated Press projected that Republicans had won at least 218 seats, the minimum needed for a majority in the lower chamber. Nine other races remain too close to call. If current margins hold, Republicans will win 221 seats in the House to Democrats’ 214.

Republicans are also projected to win at least 53 seats in the Senate, and President-elect Donald Trump is projected to win 312 electoral votes—a clean sweep of all seven swing states.

However, those margins will be somewhat reduced by the departure of at least three congressmen—Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.)—who will serve in Trump’s administration, some pending Senate confirmation. Filling these seats will require a special election, potentially reducing Republicans’ effective majority for months.

However, each of these three seats is likely to return to GOP hands in such a contest.

During a Nov. 12 press conference, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) declared victory in the battle to keep control of the House.

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“We did everything possible to ensure we could come to this moment,” Johnson said from the steps of the U.S. Capitol in front of a podium reading “New Day in America.”

“It is a new day in Washington; it is morning in America.”

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said at the press conference that Trump wouldn’t have to fight members of his own party this time, as he did when he entered office in 2017.

“The American people are hungry for [change], and they’re going to find a Republican leadership willing to work for them so they don’t have to struggle any longer,” Scalise said.

Johnson described the GOP win as “decisive.”

“The American people want us to implement and deliver that America First agenda,” he said.

He predicted that the 119th Congress could be “the most consequential Congress of the modern era,” saying, “We quite literally have to fix almost every metric of public policy. Everything is a mess.”

Still, control of the House remains unusually slim for Republicans in an otherwise favorable environment, particularly compared to the vast 47-seat House majority Trump enjoyed when he entered office in 2017.

Johnson, meanwhile, has indicated an intention to pursue the speakership for a second term. Doing so would require at least 218 votes, but Republicans’ narrow margins—and the opposition of many members to Johnson’s management of the House in the previous Congress—could make that difficult.