WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥 Republicans were on the cusp of retaking control of the House late Monday, just one victory shy of the 218 seats the party needs to secure a majority, narrowing the path for Democrats to keep the chamber and raising the prospect of a divided government in Washington.
Democrats have already won , securing 50 seats with a next month that could give President Joe Biden鈥檚 party an additional seat. The GOP came into the election needing to gain a net of just five seats for House control.
Nearly a week after the , Republicans were closing in on the majority, giving conservatives leverage to blunt Biden鈥檚 agenda and spur a flurry of investigations. But a slim numerical advantage will pose immediate challenges for GOP leaders and complicate the party鈥檚 ability to govern.
The full scope of the party鈥檚 majority may not be clear for several more days 鈥 or weeks 鈥 as votes in competitive races are still being counted. Still, the party was on track to achieve 218 with seats in California and other states still too early to call.
Even barely achieving 218, though, means Republicans will likely have the narrowest majority of the 21st century. It could rival 2001, when Republicans had just a nine-seat majority, 221-212 with two independents. That鈥檚 far short of the sweeping victory Republicans predicted going into this year鈥檚 midterm elections, when the party hoped to reset the agenda on Capitol Hill by capitalizing on economic challenges and Biden鈥檚 lagging popularity.
Instead, an expected big GOP election, holding on to moderate, suburban districts from Virginia to Minnesota and Kansas. The results could to become speaker as some conservative members have questioned whether to back him or have imposed conditions for their support.
The narrow margins have upended Republican politics and prompted finger-pointing about what went wrong. Some in the for the worse-than-expected outcome. The former president, who is expected to announce a third White House bid on Tuesday, lifted candidates during this year鈥檚 primaries who .
Despite its underwhelming showing, the GOP will still see its power in Washington grow. Republicans will take control of House committees, giving them the ability to shape legislation and launch probes of Biden, his family and his administration.
There鈥檚 particular interest in of the president鈥檚 son Hunter Biden. Some of the most conservative lawmakers have raised the prospect of impeaching Biden, though that will be much harder for the party to accomplish with a tight majority.
Any legislation that emerges from the House could face steep odds in the Senate, where the narrow Democratic majority will often be enough to derail GOP-championed legislation.
With such a slim majority in the House, there鈥檚 a potential for legislative chaos. The dynamic essentially gives an individual member enormous sway over shaping what happens in the chamber. That could lead to particularly tricky circumstances for GOP leaders as they try to win support for must-pass measures that keep the government funded or raise the debt ceiling.
The GOP鈥檚 failure to notch more gains was especially surprising because the party went into the election benefiting from congressional maps that were redrawn by Republican legislatures. History was also on Republicans鈥 side: The party that holds the White House had lost congressional seats during virtually every new president鈥檚 first midterm of the modern era.
If elected to succeed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the top post, McCarthy would lead what will likely be a rowdy conference of House Republicans, most of whom are aligned with Trump鈥檚 bare-knuckle brand of politics. Many Republicans in the incoming Congress rejected the results of the 2020 presidential election, even though claims of widespread fraud were refuted by courts, elections officials and Trump鈥檚 own attorney general.
In the first national election since the Jan. 6 insurrection, one Republican who was outside the Capitol on the day of the mob attack, Derrick Van Orden, won a House seat. He won a seat long held by Democrats in Wisconsin.
Republican candidates pledged on the campaign trail to cut taxes and tighten border security. GOP lawmakers also could withhold aid to Ukraine as it fights a war with Russia or use the threat of defaulting on the nation鈥檚 debt as leverage to extract cuts from social spending and entitlements 鈥 though all such pursuits will be tougher given how small the GOP majority may end up being.
As a senator and then vice president, Biden spent a career crafting legislative compromises with Republicans. But as president, he was clear about what he viewed as the threats posed by the current Republican Party.
Biden said the midterms show voters want Democrats and Republicans to find ways to cooperate and govern in a bipartisan manner, but also noted that Republicans didn鈥檛 achieve the electoral surge they鈥檇 been betting on and vowed, 鈥淚鈥檓 not going to change anything in any fundamental way.鈥
The president was also blunt in assessing his party's dwindling chances, saying Monday of the House, "I think it鈥檚 going to be very close, but I don鈥檛 think we鈥檙e going to make it.鈥
