Democrats are projected to seize control of the US House of Representatives after flipping multiple Republican seats in Tuesday’s midterm elections.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, 54, and his party had captured 143 called races by late Tuesday night, while Republicans held just 86 tallies at 11 p.m. NBC News and CNN both projected a Democratic takeover, though AP held off formally calling the chamber until one party reaches the 218-seat majority threshold.
If the projections hold, Jeffries could command the party’s largest House majority in more than a decade, driven by voter frustration over the economy and rising costs for fuel and food, public polls showed.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, 52, conceded the GOP’s loss in a speech from his hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana.
“From the first day of this election, we knew that to keep the House and sustain our majority, we would have to defy more than a century of midterm history,” he said. “It’s only happened twice in 90 years that a sitting president has picked up or held seats for his party in that first two-year cycle. There’s a lot of reasons for it. It’s very, very difficult to overcome, and it looks like history will be kept.”
Johnson’s acknowledgment came as Democrats racked up victories across competitive districts, including a stinging defeat for Republicans in Florida. A GOP-led redistricting effort there failed to deliver nearly a half-dozen extra seats, with Democratic candidates beating Republican opponents in at least four of five targeted districts.
In North Carolina, Democrat Jamie Ager, a farmer, routed Republican state House Rep. Jennifer Capps Balkcom 60.1% to 38.5% in the 11th District, AP called at 8:53 p.m. The seat had been held by former Rep. Chuck Edwards, who abandoned his re-election bid after a House ethics report found he engaged in “inappropriate conduct” with female staffers.
The Tar Heel State delivered another blow to GOP leadership: Richard Ojeda, a former West Virginia state lawmaker, was on track to unseat Rep. Richard Hudson, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
New Jersey Rep. Tom Kean Jr., a Republican serving his second term, lost by more than 20 percentage points to Democrat Rebecca Bennett. Kean’s tenure had been marked by a prolonged absence due to depression, and the race was called shortly before 10 p.m.
In Kentucky’s 6th District, Democrat Zach Dembo defeated Ralph Alvarado, who had recently served as Tennessee’s state commissioner of public health. The seat opened when Rep. Andy Barr left to run for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Mitch McConnell, which Barr won.
President Trump, 79, appeared to be bracing for divided government, saying in a phone interview before polls closed that he would be “Mr. Veto.”
“Historically, you veto for a couple of months and then they come and say, ‘We’ve got to make a deal,'” he said.
Trump’s allies have been preparing for potential multimillion-dollar legal exposure if House Democrats launch investigations into the first family’s business dealings and alleged corruption among the president’s associates. A Democratic majority would regain subpoena power and committee chairmanships after two years of unified Republican control.
The projected outcome follows a campaign cycle in which Republicans struggled to overcome historical headwinds. The party controlling the White House has almost always lost House seats in a president’s first midterm, with only rare exceptions across the past nine decades.
