Republicans will win control of the House of Representatives, CNN and NBC News project, reaching the threshold of 218 seats needed for a majority in the chamber after Republican Rep. Mike Garcia won in California’s 27 District.
The victory will fall short of their hopes of a “red wave” but Republicans achieving control of the House will be a roadblock for President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda and will likely subject his White House to relentless investigations.
Republicans’ victory in the House will end Democrat Nancy Pelosi’s second tenure as speaker in January. But the slim majority will make managing a restive Republican conference a stiff task for incoming House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Democrats did the unthinkable by holding onto the Senate after an election dominated by concerns about high inflation. There’s still an outstanding Senate race in Georgia, which will be decided by a December runoff and will determine how large the Democrats’ majority will be.
The GOP majority is a significantly lower majority than most election analysts were expecting but it still represents a return of Trump-style ideology and chaos politics to Washington, given the strong influence the ex-president is likely to wield over his allies in the GOP conference.
