The majority in the U.S. House hangs in balance. It was teetering this week between Republican control that would usher in a new era of unified GOP governance in Washington or a flip to Democrats as a last line of resistance to a Trump second-term White House agenda. A few individual seats, or even a single one, will determine the outcome. Alabama’s new U.S. House member, Shomari Figures, in district 2 is part of redistricting in the South that could tell the tale.
Final tallies will take a while, likely pushing the decision into next week — or beyond. With Republicans having swept to the majority in the U.S. Senate, House Speaker Mike Johnson predicted his chamber would fall in line next. A few individual seats, or even a single one, will determine the outcome. Final tallies will take a while, likely pushing the decision into next week — or beyond.
Democrat Shomari Figures defeated Republican Caroleen Dobson in Alabama’s new District 2 seat including parts of the Black Belt, as well as sections of Mobile and Montgomery Counties. The U.S. Supreme Court battled with GOP lawmakers to finalize a new voting map that better represented the nearly thirty percent of state residents who are African American. The APR news team spent nine months investigating the issues impacting the new district. Our series and documentary, “…a U.S. House seat, if you can keep it” can be found at apr.org.
Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the House "remains very much in play." He spent time in Alabama, successfully campaigning for Shomari Figures’ bid for Congress. With Democrats having defeated two House Republicans in Jeffries' home state of New York, he said the path to the majority now runs through pickup opportunities in Arizona, Oregon, Iowa and California that are still too early to call.
"We must count every vote," Jeffries said.
Nationally, after Republicans swept into the majority in the U.S. Senate by picking up seats in West Virginia, Ohio and Montana, House Speaker Mike Johnson predicted his chamber would fall in line next.
"Republicans are poised to have unified government in the White House, Senate and House," Johnson said.
President-elect Donald Trump, who won the Electoral College and the popular vote against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, has consolidated growing power around his MAGA movement, backing newcomers to Washington and setting the stage for his own return to the White House. Johnson said Republicans in Congress are preparing an "ambitious" 100-day agenda with Trump, who he has said is "thinking big" about his legacy.
Tax cuts, securing the southern border and taking a "blowtorch" to federal regulations are at the top of the agenda if the GOP sweeps the White House and Congress. Trump himself has promised mass deportations and retribution against his perceived enemies. And Republicans want to push federal agencies out of Washington and to restaff the government workforce with the help of outside think tanks, Johnson has said, to bring the federal government "to heel."
But Johnson, after just a year on the job, has had difficulty governing the House, and the new Congress would be no different. Hard-liners led by Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz and others have often confronted and upended their own GOP leadership in what has been one of the most chaotic sessions in modern times. If Johnson's slim four-seat majority were to shrink any further, governing could come to a standstill.
Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the House "remains very much in play."
With Democrats having defeated two House Republicans in Jeffries' home state of New York, he said the path to the majority now runs through pickup opportunities in Arizona, Oregon, Iowa and California that are still too early to call.
"We must count every vote," Jeffries said.
The House contests remained a tit-for-tat fight to the finish, with no dominant pathway to the majority for either party. Rarely, if ever have the two chambers of Congress flipped in opposite directions.
Each side is gaining and losing a few seats, including through the redistricting process, which is the routine redrawing of House seat boundary lines. The process reset seats in North Carolina, Louisiana and Alabama.
Much of the outcome hinges on the West, particularly in California, where a handful of House seats are being fiercely contested, and mail-in ballots arriving a week after the election will still be counted. Hard-fought races around the "blue dot" in Omaha, Nebraska and in far-flung Alaska are among those being watched.
Trump, speaking early Wednesday at his election night party in Florida, said the results delivered an "unprecedented and powerful mandate" for Republicans.
He called the Senate rout "incredible," and he praised Johnson, saying he's "doing a terrific job."
From the U.S. Capitol, Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, privately a harsh Trump critic, called it a "hell of a good day."
Senate Republicans marched across the map alongside Trump, flipping the three Democratic-held seats and holding their own against Democratic challengers who failed to unseat Senator Ted Cruz in Texas and Senator Rick Scott in Florida.
In West Virginia, Jim Justice, the state's wealthy governor, flipped the seat held by retiring Senator Joe Manchin. Republicans toppled Democrat Senator Sherrod Brown in Ohio with GOP luxury car dealer and blockchain entrepreneur Bernie Moreno. And Republican Tim Sheehy defeated Democratic Senator Jon Tester in Montana.
Democrats avoided a total wipeout by salvaging seats in the "blue wall" states. Rep. Elissa Slotkin won an open Senate seat in Michigan, and Senator Tammy Baldwin was reelected in Wisconsin. Pennsylvania's race between Democratic Senator Bob Casey and Republican challenger Dave McCormick was still undecided.
In other developments, Democrats made history by sending two Black women, Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland, to the Senate. Just thee Black women, including Harris, have served in the Senate, but never two at the same time.
All told, Senate Republicans have the potential to achieve their most robust majority in years — a testament to McConnell, who made a career charting a path to power, this time aligned with Trump whom he has privately called "despicable" in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
During a news conference Wednesday, McConnell declined to answer questions about his past stark criticism of Trump and said he viewed the election results as a referendum on the Biden administration.
He told reporters at the Capitol that a Senate under Republican control would "control the guardrails" and prevent changes in Senate rules that would end the filibuster.
"People were just not happy with this administration and the Democratic nominee was a part of it," McConnell said.
What's still unclear is who will lead the new Republican Senate, as McConnell prepares to step down from the post.
South Dakota Senator John Thune, the No. 2 Republican, and Texas Senator John Cornyn, who previously held that post, are the front-runners to replace McConnell in a secret-ballot election scheduled for when senators arrive in Washington next week.
