Republicans take back the House in narrow 7-seat lead; Congress split
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The slim Republican majority in the lower house of the US legislature takes the win on Wednesday but still fail to take over the Senate in the November 8 midterm elections.
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House leader Kevin McCarthy celebrates the win (Sky News)
The US House of Representatives has been snatched back by the Republicans, leaving the Democrats high and dry and power in Congress divided.
Although slim and smaller than what the party worked for, the Republican majority in the lower house of the US legislature took the win on Wednesday but still failed to take over the Senate in the November 8 midterm elections.
Top House Republican Kevin McCarthy was congratulated by US President Joe Biden who expressed his willingness "to work with House Republicans to deliver results for working families." McCarthy is expected to replace Democrat Nancy Pelosi.
Biden believed last week's vote represented "a strong rejection of election deniers, political violence and intimidation," exhibiting "the strength and resilience of American democracy."
This comes just a day after former President Donald Trump announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidency. However, a major factor that hurt the GOP votes in the midterms is the Trump fiasco, including his MAGA campaign and the Jan 6 insurrection probe.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi chimed in by saying that in "the next Congress, House Democrats will continue to play a leading role in supporting President Biden’s agenda with strong leverage over a scant Republican majority."
A YouGov survey last Sunday found that 42% of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents and Republican-leaning independents said they would prefer Florida governor Ron DeSantis over Trump to run in 2024.
Georgia could be the plot twist
Pennsylvania was the tipping point for the Democrats in the Senate after John Fetterman topped Dr. Mehmet Oz, followed by Arizona after Democrat Senator Mark Kelly defeated his opponent and Nevada after Democrat Senator Catherine Cortez Masto won re-election. The seats in the three states provided the winning majority in the upper chamber with 50 seats - supported by Vice President Kamala Harris' tie-breaking vote.
Georgia, on the other hand, could up the Democrats' chances next month in the Senate, which manages the confirmation of federal judges and cabinet members.
The reason why is that former US Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich received an order from a Virginia judge last Wednesday to testify in front of the January 6 committee in Fulton County, Georgia, for the investigation concerning former President Donald Trump’s efforts in the state to overturn the 2020 election.
January 3, however, is when the 435 newly elected members of the House of Representatives pertaining to both Democrats and Republicans choose their House speaker, which ranks as the third most important political position following the president and vice president.
McCarthy received some subtle backlash after declaring that a "blank check" is not in the Republican party's agenda, which constitutes the ongoing multibillion-dollar fund campaign for the war in Ukraine.
