The US Capitol is seen from Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (Jon Elswick/AP)
WASHINGTON — Republican leaders projected Thursday they will retain control of the U.S. House as more races were decided in their favor, while Democrats insisted they still see a path to the majority and sought assurances that every vote will count.
The GOP picked up two more hard-fought seats in Pennsylvania, making it a strong battleground of Democratic losses up and down the ticket. Democrats won another victory in New York, defeating a third Republican representative in that state.
Both parties in the House huddled privately on conference calls to assess the political landscape as Congress prepares to return next week to a changed Washington, where a sweep of MAGA-infused GOP power is within reach of President-elect Donald Trump.
“The latest data indicates that we will also hold — and likely grow — our Republican majority in the House,” Speaker Mike Johnson said in a letter to colleagues, asking for their support to keep the club.
But Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said “it has not yet been decided” which party will control the House because several key races remained uncalled.
Seeing their options narrow, Democrats focused on flipping a handful of seats in Arizona, California and possibly Oregon to close the gap.
“We have to make every vote count,” Jeffries said.
A final tally in the House will almost certainly have to wait until next week, at the earliest, when Congress is back in session and preparing to elect its new leaders, including nominees for House Speaker and the senator who will replace outgoing GOP Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
The election results were beyond what Republicans had even hoped for, including a majority in the Senate, where two races remained undecided — in Arizona between Democrat Ruben Gallego and Republican Kari Lake and in Nevada between Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen and Republican Sam Brown.
The Associated Press called more races Thursday. In Pennsylvania, Republican Ryan Mackenzie defeated incumbent Democrat Susan Wild in the Allentown-area district, and Republican Robert Bresnahan unseated Democrat Matt Cartwright in the northeastern part of the state.
The Pennsylvania Senate race between Sen. Bob Casey and wealthy businessman Dave McCormick was decided in McCormick’s favor, giving Republicans a 53rd seat in the chamber.
Democrats made up some ground in New York, where Laura Gillen beat incumbent GOP Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, the third flip for Democrats in Jeffries’ home state.
Attention was increasingly focused on the West, where Democrats were eyeing what remains of their path to the majority.
Democrats would need to sweep the most contested races, including two in Arizona and several in California, to win power. But the numbers are expected to drag on as California, in particular, counts mail-in ballots that arrive the week after the election.
Republican Rep. Richard Hudson, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told lawmakers during a private call that he is confident the GOP will hold the House majority, according to a Republican familiar with the conversation but spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details.
Trump is consolidating power in Washington and returning to the White House a far more dominant force than during his first term, when Republicans were divided over their support for him and some were openly skeptical if not opposed to his rise.
This time, Johnson and Senate GOP leaders have sided with Trump, relying on his power for their own as they push a joint Republican agenda more in line 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.”
While Johnson is in line to remain speaker of the House in the new Congress, if Republicans retain control, the question of who will replace McConnell, who led his party by flipping control of the Senate, is its own intense contest.
The choices Republican senators face for a new leader are between the “Johns” — No. 2 Republican Sen. John Thune and Texas Sen. John Cornyn — and a longshot, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who is favored by hard-right Senate conservatives who want Trump to weigh into the race.
Cornyn and Thune, who both campaigned for Trump, are building support among senators in what is expected to be a tight private ballot race.
Thune has been working to mend 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 condition of anonymity to discuss it.
The South Dakota senator had been critical of Trump in the aftermath of the 2020 election for facing allegations of fraudulent voting before the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Thune and Trump have been in contact throughout the year, the person said.
Thune has suggested it might be best if Trump stayed out of the leadership race.
“It’s his prerogative to weigh in,” Thune said on Fox News. “Honestly, I think if he lets it play out, we’ll get the right person. I’ve had conversations with him and told him we want to get his team in place so he can hit the ground running and start working with an agenda to ensure that he and our team succeed.”
Republicans are eyeing quick action in line 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 how much Republicans will be able to accomplish, especially if they have another razor-thin majority with few seats left for dissent, in the face of opposition from Democrats.
Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Stephen Groves, Farnoush Amiri and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.
