Republicans close to capturing the U.S. House majority – Early on Thursday (10 November), Republicans were closer to securing a majority of the US House of Representatives, while control of the Senate was still in doubt. This is two days after Democrats stopped a Republican “redwave” in midterm elections.
Edison Research predicted that Republicans would win at least 210 House seats. This is eight short of 218 required to take the House from Democrats.
Although Republicans are still the preferred party, 33 House contests remain undetermined. This includes 21 of 53 most competitive races based on a Reuters analysis by leading nonpartisan forecasters. It is likely that the final outcome won’t be known for quite some time.
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The fate of the Senate was less certain. Either party could take control of the Senate by winning too-close-to call races in Nevada or Arizona. Officials are manually counting thousands of uncounted votes.
Splitting would result in the Senate majority going down to a runoff election for Georgia for the second year in a row. Both Raphael Warnock, the Democratic incumbent, and Herschel Walker, Herschel’s challenger, failed to reach 50% Tuesday. This forced them into a one on one battle on 6/12.
Even a small House majority could allow Republicans to control the remainder of Biden’s term, preventing priority areas like abortion rights and initiating investigations into his family and administration.
Biden admitted to that fact on Wednesday and said he was ready to work with Republicans. According to a White House official, Biden called Kevin McCarthy, Republican House leader and announced earlier that he would run for Speaker of the House in the event that Republicans take control of the chamber.
Biden stated that the American people had made it clear, I believe, that they expect Republicans to be willing to work with them as well at a White House news conference.
McCarthy may have trouble keeping his fractured caucus together with a hard-right wing who is not interested in compromise if he becomes the next House speaker.
Expect Republicans to demand spending cuts in return for raising the nation’s borrowing limit next fiscal year. This could cause financial markets to be rattled.
The Republicans would have the power to block Biden from naming judges and administrators to the Senate if they control the Senate.
Mixed results
In the past, the party in power suffered significant losses in a president’s first midterm elections. Biden’s low approval ratings have been a problem. However, Democrats managed to avoid the devastating defeat Republicans expected.
Tuesday’s results showed that voters punished Biden for the highest inflation in 40-years, as well as lashing out at Republican efforts to ban abortions and question the nation’s voting process.
Biden had set the election up as a test for democracy in the United States at a time when hundreds of Republican candidates were embracing Trump’s false claims of stealing the 2020 presidential election.
While a number of election deniers won Tuesday’s elections, many people who wanted to supervise elections at the state and local levels were defeated.
Biden stated, “It was an excellent day, I believe, for democracy.”
Trump was active in the recruitment of Republican candidates and had mixed results.
He won in Ohio, where J.D. Hillbilly was the author of “Hillbilly Elegy”. Vance won a Senate seat in order to keep it in Republican hands. However, several Trump-backed candidates were defeated, including Mehmet Oz (retired celebrity surgeon), who lost a critical Senate race in Pennsylvania, to Democrat John Fetterman.
In the meantime, Ron DeSantis, a Republican Florida Governor who could challenge Trump 2024, was reelected by almost 20 percentage points. This adds to his national prominence.
