By N. Peter Kramer
The Republican Party has won the 218 seats needed to form a majority in the House of Representatives. It is a delayed but expected outcome because it was already counted of a Republican victory in the House. The majority gives the Republicans the power to block President Biden’s policies until 2024. The Republicans having the most seats in the House will provide the chairman, the Speaker of the House. That means that Democrat Nancy Pelosi has to make way for Kevin McCarthy. She also decided not to run for minority-leader of the House Democrats.
Counting the votes took a long time in several places because the results were often very close and recounts were necessary. At the moment, the result of seven House seat races have not yet been received. When those results are available, it will become clear how big the predominance of the Republicans in the House will be. Anyhow, the gain for them will be a lot smaller than expected; the predicted ‘Red Wave’ didn’t find place.
President Biden congratulated the Republicans in a tweet. He wrote, politely, that he is looking forward to cooperating with them in the House.
At the midterm elections on November 8, 435 seats in the House and 34 of the 100 seats in the Senate were redistributed. In addition, governorships were redistributed in many states. Last weekend it was already clear that the Democrats retain control in the Senate.
