WASHINGTON — Republican leaders expressed confidence Thursday in their ability to maintain control of the House of Representatives as other elections are decided in their favor, while Democrats insisted they still see a path towards the majority and demanded assurance that every vote would be counted.
The GOP won two more hard-fought seats in Pennsylvania, which has become a tough battleground of Democratic defeats up and down. Democrats scored another victory in New York, defeating a third Republican incumbent in the state.
Both parties in the House met privately on conference calls to assess the political landscape as Congress prepared to return next week to a changed Washington, where a MAGA-infused GOP power grab is within reach of President-elect Donald Trump.
“The latest data indicates that we will also retain — and likely increase — our Republican majority in the House,” Speaker Mike Johnson said in a letter to his colleagues, seeking their support for retaining the gavel.
But Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said “it’s still to be decided” which party will control the House because several key elections have not been called.
Seeing their options narrowing, Democrats focused on trading a handful of seats in Arizona, California and perhaps Oregon to narrow the gap.
“We have to count every vote,” Jeffries said.
The final tally in the House will almost certainly have to wait until next week, at the earliest, when Congress returns to session and prepares to elect its new leaders, including nominees for House speaker and the senator who will replace the outgoing Republican minority leader, Mitch. McConnell.
Election results exceeded what Republicans had hoped for, including a majority in the Senate, where two elections were still undecided – in Arizona between Democrat Ruben Gallego and Republican Kari Lake and in Nevada between Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen and Rep. Republican Sam Brown.
The Associated Press announced other races Thursday. In Pennsylvania, Republican Ryan Mackenzie defeated Democratic incumbent Rep. Susan Wild in the Allentown district, and Republican Robert Bresnahan unseated Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright in the northeastern part of the state.
The Pennsylvania Senate race between Senator Bob Casey and wealthy businessman Dave McCormick was decided in McCormick’s favor, giving Republicans a 53rd seat in the chamber.
Democrats gained ground in New York, where Laura Gillen defeated Republican incumbent Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, marking the third loss for Democrats in Jeffries’ home state.
Attention increasingly shifted to the West, where Democrats eyed what remained of their path to the majority.
Democrats would need to win the most closely contested elections, including two in Arizona and several in California, to win power. But the counts are expected to drag on as California, in particular, counts mail-in ballots that arrive in the week after the election.
Republican Rep. Richard Hudson, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told lawmakers on a private call that he is confident the GOP will hold the majority in the House, according to a Republican who is familiar with the call but spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release details.
Trump is consolidating his power in Washington, returning the White House to a much more dominant force than during his first term, when Republicans were divided on their support and some were openly skeptical, even opposed, of his ascension.
This time, Johnson and Senate Republican leaders have moved closer to Trump, leveraging his power to pursue a joint Republican agenda more aligned with his “Make America Great Again” priorities.
Johnson, in his letter to colleagues, used a football metaphor to say he is “ready to take the field with all of you” to play “the greatest offense of our lives.”
With Johnson on track to remain House speaker in the new Congress, if Republicans maintain control, the question of who will replace McConnell, who led his party in flipping control of the Senate, is an intense competition.
The choices facing Republican senators for a new leader are between the “Johns” — No. 2 Republican Sen. John Thune and Texas Sen. John Cornyn — and a distant senator, Rick Scott of Florida, who is favored by the far-right Senate. conservatives who want Trump to weigh in on the race.
Cornyn and Thune, who both campaigned for Trump, are gaining support from senators in what is expected to be a tight race in private runoffs.
Thune has worked to repair a rocky relationship with Trump, and the two spoke as recently as Wednesday, according to another Republican familiar with the private conversation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss it.
The South Dakota senator had criticized Trump in the aftermath of the 2020 election for fueling allegations of fraudulent voting before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Thune and Trump have been in contact throughout the year, a indicated the source.
Thune suggested it might be best for Trump to stay out of the leadership race.
“It’s his prerogative to comment on that,” Thune said on Fox News. “Honestly, I think if he lets it happen, we’ll find the right person. I had conversations with him and told him we wanted to get his team in place so he could get to work and get to work on a program to ensure success for him and our team.
Republicans are considering swift action, aligned with Trump’s initial priorities, which revolve around cutting taxes, deporting immigrants who are in the country without certain legal status, and scaling back federal regulations and operations. .
But after the chaos of the past two years of GOP control of the House, it’s unclear what Republicans will be able to accomplish, especially if they have another razor-thin majority with few seats left. reserve for dissent, in the face of resistance from the Republican Party. Democrats.
Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Stephen Groves, Farnoush Amiri and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.
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