Republicans won enough seats to control the US House of Representatives, completing the party’s rise to power and securing their grip on the US government alongside President-elect Donald Trump.
The Republican House win in Arizona, combined with a win in the slow-counting state of California earlier Wednesday, gave the GOP a 218 victory in the House majority. Republicans had previously controlled the Senate from Democrats.
With weak but elusive majorities, Republican leaders envision a mandate to upend the federal government and quickly implement Trump’s vision for the country.
The next president has promised to carry out the nation’s largest deportation ever, extend tax breaks, punish his political enemies, control the most powerful levers of the federal government and reshape the American economy. GOP election victories ensure that Congress will buy into this agenda, and Democrats will be almost powerless to check it.
When Trump was elected president in 2016, Republicans also swept Congress, but he nonetheless faced Republican leaders resistant to his policy ideas, as well as a Supreme Court with a liberal majority. Not this time.
When Trump returns to the White House, he will work with a Republican Party completely transformed by his “Make America Great Again” movement, and with a Supreme Court dominated by conservative justices, including three Trump-appointed justices.
Trump rallied Republicans in the House of Representatives at a Capitol Hill hotel on Wednesday morning, in his first return to Washington since the election.
“I guess I won’t run again unless you say, ‘It’s good, we have to think about something else,'” Trump told the room full of lawmakers who laughed in response.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, who won Trump’s support with the Republican Conference’s nomination to remain Speaker of the House next year, spoke of dealing a strong blow to the federal government and its programs, and discussed ways to reform even the popular programs that Democrats have recently defended. Years. The Louisiana Republican, an ardent conservative, has brought the House Republican Conference closer to Trump during the campaign season as they prepare an “ambitious” 100-day agenda.
“Republicans in the House and Senate have a mandate,” Johnson said earlier this week. “The American people want us to implement and achieve the ‘America First’ agenda.
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Trump’s allies in the House are already signaling they will seek retaliation for Trump’s legal troubles while out of office. The incoming president said on Wednesday that he would nominate Rep. Matt Gaetz, a staunch loyalist, to be attorney general.
Meanwhile, Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said GOP lawmakers are “not taking anything off the table” in their plans to investigate special counsel Jack Smith, even as Smith wraps up two federal investigations into Trump. . Charged with conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and storing secret documents at his home in Mar-a-Lago.
However, with a few races yet to be decided, Republicans may hold the majority by just a few seats as the new Congress begins. Trump’s decision to withdraw from the House of Representatives to take positions in his administration — Reps. Gaetz, Mike Waltz and Elise Stefanik so far — could complicate Johnson’s ability to maintain his majority in the early days of the new Congress.
Gaetz submitted his resignation on Wednesday, effective immediately. Johnson said he hopes the seat will be filled by the time the new Congress convenes on January 3. Replacing House members requires special elections, and the congressional districts held by the three departing members have been controlled by Republicans for years.
With a slim majority, a highly efficient House of Representatives is not guaranteed either. The past two years of Republican control of the House were marked by infighting as hardline conservative factions sought to gain influence and power by openly challenging their party’s leadership. While Johnson – at times with Trump’s help – has largely tamed open rebellions against his leadership, the party’s right wing is rising and ambitious in the wake of Trump’s election victory.
The Republican majority also relies on a small group of lawmakers who won tough elections by running as moderates. It remains to be seen whether they will stay on board with some of the more extreme proposals championed by Trump and his allies.
Meanwhile, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries is trying to keep Democrats attached to any legislation Congress passes, an effort that will depend on Democratic leaders uniting the more than 200 members, even as the party undergoes a post-hoc analysis of its election losses.
In the Senate, GOP leaders, who just won a convincing majority, are working with Trump to confirm his Cabinet picks. Sen. John Thune of South Dakota won the internal election on Wednesday to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell, the party’s longest-serving leader in Senate history.
Thune has been critical of Trump in the past, but he praised the incoming president during his bid for party leadership.
“This Republican team is united. “We are on a team,” Thune said. “We are excited to regain the majority and work with our colleagues in the House to advance President Trump’s agenda.”
The 53-seat GOP Senate majority also ensures that Republicans will have breathing room when it comes to confirming Cabinet positions, or Supreme Court justices if there is a vacancy. Not all of these assurances are foolproof. Republicans were skeptical on Wednesday when news reached Capitol Hill that Trump would nominate Gaetz for attorney general. Even Trump’s close allies in the Senate distanced themselves from supporting Gaetz, who was facing a House Ethics Committee investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use.
However, Trump on Sunday demanded that any Republican leader be allowed to make administration appointments without a vote while the Senate is in recess. Such a move would be a notable shift of power away from the Senate, but all of the leadership contenders quickly agreed to the idea. Democrats would likely resist such a maneuver.
Meanwhile, Trump supporters on social media, including Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, have called out against a traditional Republican pick to lead the Senate. Thune served as a top aide to McConnell, who once described the former president as a “despicable human being” in his private remarks.
However, McConnell made clear that the days of Republican resistance to Trump on Capitol Hill are over.
