Republicans appeared on Saturday to be close to winning a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, which will be key to President-elect Donald Trump’s policies when he returns to the White House in January.
With votes still being counted from the Nov. 5 general election, Republicans will win 212 seats in the 435-member House of Representatives, according to Edison Research, with Friday night’s forecast predicting Republican Jeff Hurd will win Colorado. He said he received enough votes to maintain Republican control in the state’s 3rd Congressional District. .
The Associated Press reported on Saturday that Democratic Rep. Marie Grusenkamp Perez, who represents Washington state, will face Republican Joe Kent in a rematch with Republican Joe Kent in one of the closest races of 2022. It was announced that he had won re-election.
Two years ago, Grusenkamp Perez won the seat by just over 2,600 votes. Before the election, Mr. Grusenkamp Perez owned an auto shop in the rural area of his district, and the store featured prominently in his campaign.
The Republican-leaning district that Donald Trump led in 2020 includes parts of the suburbs of Portland, Oregon, that stretch into the southwestern part of the state and Washington state.
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Republicans need to win six more seats to maintain their House majority, and Republicans have already won enough to wrest the Senate majority from Democrats, Edison Research said late Friday. Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen was predicted to win reelection in Nevada.
Rosen, a first-term moderate in a presidential battleground state, was one of the Republicans’ top targets. She called for lowering costs for the middle class, defending abortion rights and tackling the climate crisis. Over the summer, she pointed to the heat waves that devastated the West and introduced legislation that would qualify heatwaves as disasters under federal law.
Trump’s victory in the presidential election and Republican control of the Senate have already been determined, so if they retain control of the House of Representatives, Republicans will be given significant power to pursue a wide range of issues, including tax cuts, spending cuts, energy deregulation, and border security. It is possible to force a breakthrough.
The results of 19 House elections remain uncertain, most in battleground states in the west where vote counting is slower than in other parts of the country.
Ten of those seats are currently held by Republicans and nine by Democrats. Before the election, 14 seats were widely expected to be up for grabs.
Republican senators will decide next week who will lead the Senate in 2025, with John Thune, John Cornyn and Rick Scott vying for the job. On Saturday, Sens. Bill Hagerty and Rand Paul endorsed Mr. Scott over the seniors Mr. Thune and Mr. Cornyn, who are considered the favorites.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
