Republicans Retain Control of House of Representatives

With several close races called in recent days, the Republican Party has won enough seats to retain their majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

As reported by Breitbart, the first major outlet to project the Republican victory in the lower chamber of Congress was Decision Desk HQ, which says that Republicans have crossed the threshold of 218 seats. Democrats currently have 209 seats.

This result is primarily due to several Republican flips in the Rust Belt, with two Democratic incumbents being unseated in Pennsylvania by Republican challengers: Congressman Matt Cartwright (D-Penn.) of the 8th district was unseated by Republican challenger Rob Bresnahan, while Congresswoman Susan Wild (D-Penn.) was defeated by Republican Ryan Mackenzie. In Michigan, former State Senator Tom Barrett (R-Mich.) won the race for the 7th district, vacated by Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin’s (D-Mich.) decision to run for the U.S. Senate.

Republicans also made significant gains in North Carolina, where a heavily-gerrymandered map approved by the Republican-dominated state legislature saw several Democratic districts eliminated and replaced with heavily Republican districts. The GOP made a net gain of three seats in the state, switching the state’s congressional delegation from 7-7 to 10-4 in favor of Republicans.

These victories offset losses in New York, where three Republican freshmen were defeated in swing districts or heavily blue districts that they were not expected to keep: Congressmen Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.), Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.), and Brandon Williams (R-N.Y.) of the 4th, 19th, and 22nd districts, respectively, were all unseated by Democratic challengers. All three men had won their seats in the 2022 election, with their victories largely attributed to the coattails of former Congressman Lee Zeldin’s nearly-successful campaign for Governor of New York that same year.

Republicans also flipped Colorado’s 8th district, where Republican challenger Gabe Evans managed to unseat Congresswoman Yadira Caraveo (D-Colo.) in an upset.

On the Democratic side, two seats were taken from Republican hands due to court-ordered congressional maps that installed black-majority districts in southern states. As a result, Democrats picked up Alabama’s 2nd district and Louisiana’s 6th district.

In addition to the New York losses, Democrats managed to flip one seat in California, with incumbent Congressman Mike Garcia (R-Calif.) being bested by Democratic challenger George Whitesides in the 27th district. And in Oregon, freshman Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) was defeated by Democrat Janelle Bynum. Chavez-DeRemer had won the seat in 2022, due in large part to incumbent Congressman Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.), a known moderate, being defeated in the primary by far-left activist Jamie McLeod-Skinner, who went on to lose the general election to Chavez-DeRemer.

Among the races that remain too close or too early to call are California’s 13th, 45th, and 47th districts, as well as Alaska’s at-large district. Incumbent Republicans John Duarte and Michelle Steele are fending off challengers in California’s 13th and 45th districts, respectively, while Republican Scott Baugh and Democrat Dave Min are battling it out for the 47th district, where incumbent Congresswoman Katie Porter (D-Calif.) retired to mount an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate. In Alaska, Congresswoman Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) is currently trailing Republican Nick Begich III by 4%.

With control of the House of Representatives secured, Republicans have their first trifecta of the federal government since 2016, complete with a 53-seat majority in the U.S. Senate and control of the presidency once again, due to Donald Trump’s historic comeback victory last Tuesday.