WASHINGTON — Americans were still waiting Friday to learn which party will control the House and Senate next year.
Three days after final ballots were cast in the 2022 midterm elections, more than two dozen House races have not yet been called, with a number of them in California and other areas in the western half of the country. In spite of that uncertainty, Republicans are already jockeying for power — while Democrats are enjoying the progress they’ve made so far in beating expectations and defying historical headwinds.
Republicans have a better chance of winning a majority in the House, though the Democrats still have a chance to retain control. As of Friday morning, Republicans have won 211 seats, Democrats have won 197 and 27 races remain uncalled. A party needs 218 seats to control the House.
The Senate also hangs in the balance, as results in key races in Arizona and Nevada have not been decided. On Thursday night, NBC News rated the Nevada contest between Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and her Republican challenger Adam Laxalt as too close to call. Arizona’s Senate race between Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly and Republican Blake Masters was still too early to call.
Clark County Registrar of Voters Joe Gloria will hold a news conference Friday morning to provide an update about the ongoing election process. Gloria had signaled Thursday that it could take at least until Saturday to finish counting votes in his region.
The Senate contest in Georgia has advanced to a runoff election on Dec. 6. Neither Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, nor GOP opponent Herschel Walker cleared the threshold of 50% of the vote on Tuesday. Their matchup could ultimately determine who controls the Senate if neither party sweeps Arizona and Nevada.
While Democrats may still lose control of the House, party lawmakers and strategists sounded a positive note about stopping a red wave and keeping the margin close.
“I believe it’s attributable to an electorate prioritizing freedom, competency, and civility over ideology,” Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., who won his re-election bid, told NBC News.
Legislation advanced by the Democratic-led Congress, including the Inflation Reduction Act and pro-police measures, “had a huge role” in boosting the party’s candidates, said Chris Hayden, the communications director for the House campaign committee.
“Whether it’s Angie Craig talking about capping insulin for seniors, or Matt Cartwright talking about taking on price-gouging, or Abigail Spanberger talking about the work she did to secure police funding, our incumbents had accomplishments to run on,” Hayden said. “What Republicans said in their ads were: ‘Gas prices, they’re high!’ And that was the end of the ad. They never said what they’d do.”
White House spokesman Andrew Bates said Democratic agenda items like “lowering prescription drug costs and standing up for reproductive rights,” and driving that contrast with Republicans were “crucial to winning independents, turning out young people, and defying the odds in one of the hardest midterm environments on record.”
Former President Donald Trump, who has teased that he plans to launch a third White House bid on Tuesday night, has been railing against fellow Republicans on his Truth Social platform while claiming without any evidence that “very strange things” were happening as regular vote counting processes continued in Nevada and Arizona.
But even as Congress’s future remains unclear, Republicans were already preparing to take over in the House for the first time since 2018. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has announced his run for speaker and has formed transition teams to oversee setting up a GOP majority that is not yet assured. Should the GOP take control of the chamber, it’s likely to be by a slim number of seats, and keeping members in lockstep could be a challenge.
McCarthy released a letter Thursday calling for the full re-opening of…
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