Despite a midterm election filled with humiliating losses and severe setbacks, Republicans have achieved a razor thin majority in the US House of Representatives, ending the Democratic Party’s two-year-long period of unified government.
As of Wednesday, House Republicans now have 218 seats, the bare minimum needed to confirm control of the 435-seat lower house. But Democrats currently have 210 seats, and 7 U.S. House seats remain uncalled; thus the full extent of the Republicans’ majority won’t be known for days or perhaps weeks.
Should Republicans manage to win all 7 of the remaining congressional races left to call, they will still take control with one of the smallest House majorities in modern U.S. history. It’s likely Democrats will win at least a couple of the remaining races, meaning that the final tally could see a Republican majority of less than 5 seats.
This could complicate California Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s efforts to line up the votes he needs to replace Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker. Republicans are currently beset by infighting and finger-pointing over the failure to achieve a ‘red wave’ in last week’s midterm.
Not only are Democrats poised to enlarge their Senate majority, hard-right extremists backed by Donald Trump were defeated by Democrats in races all over the country, with Republicans facing particularly brutal defeats in Arizona and Michigan.
Trump and his supporters have blamed current republican leadership — including McCarthy, the House Minority Leader, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — for these failures. Meanwhile, other Republicans, by no means representing a majority, have attempted to blame Trump and the candidates he backed –candidates who were all election deniers and in some cases openly racist.
On Tuesday, McCarthy was formally nominated by House Republicans to become Speaker when they take over. But his election is far from secured. 31 of the Republican Party’s most conservative members voted against his nomination and their representatives have told McCarthy he doesn’t have the votes to become Speaker without making serious concessions to them.
More to come
