Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., holds the gavel onstage ahead of the start of the first day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 15, 2024.
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Republicans will keep control of the House of Representatives, NBC News projects, securing a GOP trifecta with the White House and the Senate.
The GOP’s win was projected Wednesday, more than a week after Election Day. It comes after President-elect Donald Trump claimed a decisive victory against Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election and after Republicans flipped control of the Senate.
The Republican triumph also presents an opportunity for Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., to keep his job, though he will first have to be reelected by his House colleagues.
Going into the election, House Republicans were looking to expand their razor-thin majority. They had been governing with 220 Republican seats to Democrats’ 212, with three vacancies.
That threadbare GOP majority gave Democrats high hopes to flip the chamber. They needed to gain a net of just four seats to seize back control, because the vacancies leave the chamber with fewer than 435 total votes.
Going into Election Day, Democrats outraised their Republican rivals in all but one of the 26 House races rated to be a “toss-up” by the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, according to an NBC News analysis of October campaign finance data. Democrats also outspent Republicans in crucial races from July through September.
Despite the massive fundraising effort, Democrats failed to stave off the red wave.
In Pennsylvania’s 8th House District, Republican Rob Bresnahan unseated incumbent Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright, and in the state’s 7th District, Republican Ryan Mackenzie defeated incumbent Democratic Rep. Susan Wild, two particularly competitive races.
In the battleground state of Michigan, Republican Tom Barret grabbed an open seat in the 7th Congressional District that formerly belonged to Democrat Elissa Slotkin, who declared victory in her Michigan Senate race.
The single-party controlled Congress will have an abundance of key issues to legislate, including whether or not to extend the $3.3 trillion Tax Cuts & Jobs Act, much of which is set to expire next year. Trump signed the initial bill into law in 2017, and has said he wants to not only extend the tax breaks, but also pursue deeper cuts.
Also on tap for Congress is the extension of enhanced subsidies under former President Barack Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act, which expire at the end of 2025. A debt ceiling fight is also coming up.
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