GOP might hold the House—but it's going to be another hot mess
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The race for control of the House is still going, with Republicans slightly favored to capture a narrow majority that will give the party no room for error to pass Donald Trump’s destructive and cruel Project 2025 agenda. As of Wednesday morning, the Associated Press has currently called 216 seats for Republicans, with ballots still being counted in critical races in California and Arizona. Democrats already picked off California GOP Rep. Mike Garcia, who conceded defeat on Monday night to Democratic Rep.-elect George Whitesides. And Democrats are on track to pick up a handful of other seats in California, with Republican Reps. John Duarte and Michelle Steel watching their leads evaporate as mail-in ballots are counted and provisional ballots are cured. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is working with campaigns to host ballot curing events, ensuring voters are given the opportunity to correct their ballots and make sure they count. Most ballots that need curing require voters to sign their ballot, match their signature from their voter registration, or provide a form of identification. You can find events to volunteer on ballot curing efforts here. After all is said and done, when the new Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3, Republicans could have as few as 220 seats or a max of 222—an extremely narrow majority by all stretches of the imagination. That is virtually unchanged from the 2022 election, when Republicans won 222 seats. What’s more, even if Republicans keep the House, Trump is set to make the GOP majority smaller by pulling sycophantic members for his Cabinet, creating vacancies for at least a few months that will give Republican leadership even less room for error. Already, Trump has nominated New York’s Elise Stefanik and Florida’s Mike Waltz to be ambassador to the United Nations and national security adviser, respectively. Those nominations led Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday to plead with Trump to stop raiding the House ranks. “Trump fully understands and appreciates the math here. And it’s just a numbers game,” Johnson said at a news conference on Capitol Hill, adding that any surprise illnesses or even late flights could complicate governing when the Republican Party’s majority is so thin. “I don't expect we will have more members leaving, but I'll leave that up to him.” Speaker Johnson on concerns Trump will shrink GOP's expected slim majority in the House by picking more members for his administration: “Trump fully understands and appreciates the math here. ... I don't expect we will have more members leaving, but I'll leave that up to him.” pic.twitter.com/9VUv7vX25c— The Recount (@therecount) November 12, 2024 House Majority Leader Steve Scalise made a similar plea. "I know he's already pulled a few really talented people out of the House, hopefully no more for a little while, until special elections can come,” Scalise said. With such a narrow majority, the House GOP’s reign is likely to be chaotic and ineffectual. When Republicans had full control of Washington during the first two years of Trump's first term, they could barely accomplish necessary tasks like funding the government. At the end of 2018, after Democrats rode a wave to victory but before the new Democratic majority was sworn in, Republicans started the longest government shutdown in history over Trump’s demand that they fund his pet border wall project that he promised Mexico would pay for. The shutdown lasted so long that it ended in 2019, after the new Democratic majority was sworn in. There were plenty of other things Republicans couldn’t accomplish from 2017 to 2018, when the GOP held the White House, the House, and the Senate. Republicans failed to get rid of Obamacare—one of Trump’s biggest legislative promises during the 2016 campaign—after the GOP’s plans to get rid of preexisting condition protections and raise costs for seniors led to a massive public outcry. House Republicans were also unsuccessful at passing immigration reform and a farm bill, failing at two other major Trump promises to fix the country’s immigration system and take care of America’s farmers. Those fiascos occurred even when Republicans had a much larger House majority, with 238 seats. That gave them a 20-vote margin of error to pass bills. With a 220-seat majority, Republicans could only afford to lose two votes in order to pass bills. And given the GOP House conference is made up of freakshow members (like Matt Gaetz of Florida, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, to name a few) and a number of warring factions (including the far-right House Freedom Caucus that refuses to go along with what Republican leadership wants), that could lead to disaster when it comes to passing Trump’s agenda. Hell, Republicans could barely come together to elect a speaker in 2023, taking multiple days and 15 rounds of votes to finally coalesce behind Kevin McCarthy, who was unceremoniously ousted less than a year later. Ultimately, the GOP’s chaos and dysfunction in the House led to Democrats winning back the chamber in 2018. With Republican incompetence set to be on display again, Democrats are sure to use that to obstruct the GOP’s radical agenda and try to win back control in the 2026 midterms. Donate now to support Democratic recount and ballot cure efforts! With critical races yet to be called and thousands of votes outstanding, volunteers are working hard to make sure every single ballot is counted. And we need all the support we can get!
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/11/13/2285626/-GOP-might-hold-the-House-but-it-s-going-to-be-another-hot-mess?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=main
The race for control of the House is still going, with Republicans slightly favored to capture a narrow majority that will give the party no room for error to pass Donald Trump’s destructive and cruel Project 2025 agenda. As of Wednesday morning, the Associated Press has currently called 216 seats for Republicans, with ballots still being counted in critical races in California and Arizona. Democrats already picked off California GOP Rep. Mike Garcia, who conceded defeat on Monday night to Democratic Rep.-elect George Whitesides. And Democrats are on track to pick up a handful of other seats in California, with Republican Reps. John Duarte and Michelle Steel watching their leads evaporate as mail-in ballots are counted and provisional ballots are cured. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is working with campaigns to host ballot curing events, ensuring voters are given the opportunity to correct their ballots and make sure they count. Most ballots that need curing require voters to sign their ballot, match their signature from their voter registration, or provide a form of identification. You can find events to volunteer on ballot curing efforts here. After all is said and done, when the new Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3, Republicans could have as few as 220 seats or a max of 222—an extremely narrow majority by all stretches of the imagination. That is virtually unchanged from the 2022 election, when Republicans won 222 seats. What’s more, even if Republicans keep the House, Trump is set to make the GOP majority smaller by pulling sycophantic members for his Cabinet, creating vacancies for at least a few months that will give Republican leadership even less room for error. Already, Trump has nominated New York’s Elise Stefanik and Florida’s Mike Waltz to be ambassador to the United Nations and national security adviser, respectively. Those nominations led Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday to plead with Trump to stop raiding the House ranks. “Trump fully understands and appreciates the math here. And it’s just a numbers game,” Johnson said at a news conference on Capitol Hill, adding that any surprise illnesses or even late flights could complicate governing when the Republican Party’s majority is so thin. “I don't expect we will have more members leaving, but I'll leave that up to him.” Speaker Johnson on concerns Trump will shrink GOP's expected slim majority in the House by picking more members for his administration: “Trump fully understands and appreciates the math here. ... I don't expect we will have more members leaving, but I'll leave that up to him.” pic.twitter.com/9VUv7vX25c— The Recount (@therecount) November 12, 2024 House Majority Leader Steve Scalise made a similar plea. "I know he's already pulled a few really talented people out of the House, hopefully no more for a little while, until special elections can come,” Scalise said. With such a narrow majority, the House GOP’s reign is likely to be chaotic and ineffectual. When Republicans had full control of Washington during the first two years of Trump's first term, they could barely accomplish necessary tasks like funding the government. At the end of 2018, after Democrats rode a wave to victory but before the new Democratic majority was sworn in, Republicans started the longest government shutdown in history over Trump’s demand that they fund his pet border wall project that he promised Mexico would pay for. The shutdown lasted so long that it ended in 2019, after the new Democratic majority was sworn in. There were plenty of other things Republicans couldn’t accomplish from 2017 to 2018, when the GOP held the White House, the House, and the Senate. Republicans failed to get rid of Obamacare—one of Trump’s biggest legislative promises during the 2016 campaign—after the GOP’s plans to get rid of preexisting condition protections and raise costs for seniors led to a massive public outcry. House Republicans were also unsuccessful at passing immigration reform and a farm bill, failing at two other major Trump promises to fix the country’s immigration system and take care of America’s farmers. Those fiascos occurred even when Republicans had a much larger House majority, with 238 seats. That gave them a 20-vote margin of error to pass bills. With a 220-seat majority, Republicans could only afford to lose two votes in order to pass bills. And given the GOP House conference is made up of freakshow members (like Matt Gaetz of Florida, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, to name a few) and a number of warring factions (including the far-right House Freedom Caucus that refuses to go along with what Republican leadership wants), that could lead to disaster when it comes to passing Trump’s agenda. Hell, Republicans could barely come together to elect a speaker in 2023, taking multiple days and 15 rounds of votes to finally coalesce behind Kevin McCarthy, who was unceremoniously ousted less than a year later. Ultimately, the GOP’s chaos and dysfunction in the House led to Democrats winning back the chamber in 2018. With Republican incompetence set to be on display again, Democrats are sure to use that to obstruct the GOP’s radical agenda and try to win back control in the 2026 midterms. Donate now to support Democratic recount and ballot cure efforts! With critical races yet to be called and thousands of votes outstanding, volunteers are working hard to make sure every single ballot is counted. And we need all the support we can get!
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/11/13/2285626/-GOP-might-hold-the-House-but-it-s-going-to-be-another-hot-mess?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=main