Republicans have regained control of the U.S. House of Representatives, but by a much smaller margin than they had predicted, a major disappointment for a party that for weeks had expected a big victory that would lay the groundwork for the 2024 presidential election. More than a week after Election Day and several seats still up for grabs, the party has won the 218 seats needed to control the House, the Associated Press reported Wednesday night.
Despite concerns about President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy and the country’s prospects for recession, voters in the Nov. 8 midterm elections delivered a split verdict on who is to blame and how much weight to give to other issues, such as abortion rights and endangerment democracy. The slim majority nonetheless gives the Republican administration power over House investigative committees with the power to subpoena investigations into Biden’s cabinet and his relatives, as well as Silicon Valley businesses that conservatives have argued are biased against them.
Republicans have also promised to cut government spending, expand fossil fuel production and extend Trump-era tax cuts for the wealthy. But much of that agenda will be left to dry in the Democratic-controlled Senate. The Senate remained in Democratic hands after John Fetterman won what was previously a Republican seat in Pennsylvania, and incumbents Mark Kelly and Catherine Cortez Masto were declared winners in Arizona and Nevada in the days after the election.
The Georgia Senate race between Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, and Herschel Walker, a Republican, will be decided in a Dec. 6 runoff. The Republican House majority will stop much of Biden’s remaining agenda, but their margin was one of the smallest by either party in a midterm election in modern times.
