Democrats will have tight control of the Senate when the new Congress takes office in January, but control of the House of Representatives remained uncertain on Sunday, five days after last week’s election.
Republicans hold a 211-204 lead in the House with 20-seat races yet to be decided in a bipartisan quest for a 218-seat majority in the 435-member House.
Most US political analysts predict that when the remaining votes are counted in the uncalled midterm elections, which could take several days, the Republicans are likely to win a very narrow majority, perhaps with 219 to 222 seats to 216 to 213 for Democrats, well below the pre-election predictions of Republican leaders.
Democrats clinched a 50th seat in the 100-member Senate Saturday night when embattled Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, considered the most vulnerable Democrat incumbent seeking re-election, narrowly edged out Adam Laxalt, a former attorney general. in the western state. He won by half a percentage point.
“We beat the odds,” Democratic President Joe Biden told reporters in Cambodia, where he attended a summit of Asian nations before heading to Bali, Indonesia, for a summit of the world’s 20 largest economies. “I feel good and I look forward to the next two years.”
Before last Tuesday’s election, US pollsters and political analysts had predicted a radical “red wave” of Republican victories in the House and a possible victory in the Senate as well.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, who has ensured to remain as House Majority Leader, called the results a “vindication” for the Democrats and their agenda.
He said Republicans had turned away voters with extremism and “negativity,” including misguided insistence by some candidates that the 2020 election had been stolen from then-President Donald Trump. “The United States showed that we believed in our democracy,” Schumer told reporters.
Republicans were mostly quiet on the Senate result, though as it became clear in recent days that a large number of Republican victories weren’t going to materialize, some party officials were already placing the blame. This included targeting Trump for his support of candidates, many of whom he lost, which was largely based on whether they agreed with his claim that he was cheated out of another four-year term.
Trump has signaled that he plans to announce his 2024 presidential bid on Tuesday.
Shortly after Cortez Masto’s victory became clear, Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri tweeted: “The old party is dead. Time to bury him. Build something new.”
Cortez Masto’s victory secures Democrats the same number of seats as in the current Senate, which now has a 50-50 split between Republicans and Democrats. A runoff election is still pending in the southern state of Georgia on December 5, in which incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock will face his Republican opponent, Herschel Walker, a former college and professional soccer star recruited for the race. by Trump.
In the current Senate, Vice President Kamala Harris, as speaker of the upper house, has occasionally cast tie-breaking votes in support of the Democratic agenda. A victory for Warnock in the Georgia race would increase the Democratic majority, give them a majority on committees that shape legislation or, if Walker wins, preserve the political status quo.
A Republican victory in the House of Representatives would give Republicans the voice to run the chamber, and California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, now the Republican minority leader, is already calling party members for their support.
If Republicans control the House, a Republican, McCarthy, or another lawmaker from the party, would replace the current House speaker, Democratic Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, and under the US Constitution, become third in line of succession to the presidency of the country after the vice president if the positions of both leaders become vacant and it is necessary to fill them.
A narrow lead for the Republicans would likely give the party input to investigate the Biden administration’s missteps during the first two years of his presidency, including last year’s chaotic military withdrawal from Afghanistan and the continued influx of undocumented immigrants into across the southwestern border of the United States with Mexico.
Legislation in a Republican-controlled House may simply be ignored by the Schumer-led Senate if Democrats disagree with such proposals.
On ‘s “State of the Union,” Pelosi declined to predict that Democrats would overcome the current Republican lead in the House race to reach a 218-seat majority, but said: “We’ll see. There are so many votes out” yet to be counted.
But he added: “Two months ago, who would have predicted that this red wave would turn into a small trickle? We are still alive; the races are close. We still believe we have a chance.”
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