Dems likely to keep House, but GOP picks off seats
WASHINGTON — Disappointed Democrats headed Wednesday toward renewing their control of the House for two more years but with a potentially shrunken majority as they lost at least seven incumbents without ousting a single Republican lawmaker.
By Wednesday afternoon, Democrats’ only gains were two North Carolina seats vacated by GOP incumbents after a courtordered remapping made the districts more Democratic. Although their majority seemed secure, the results were an unexpected jolt for a party that had envisioned gains of perhaps 15 seats. They were a morale booster for Republicans, who going into Election Day were mostly bracing for losses.
“They were all wrong,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R- Calif., told reporters about Democrats’ assumptions of adding to their House numbers. Repeating a campaign theme Republicans used repeatedly, he said, “The rejection that we saw last night from the Democrats was that America does not want to be a socialist nation.”
“The Republican coalition is bigger, more diverse and more energetic than ever before,” he said.
In perhaps their highest profile triumph, Republicans finally defeated 15- term Rep. Collin Peterson from a rural Minnesota district that backed President Donald Trump in 2016 by 31 percentage points, Trump’s biggest margin in any Democratic- held district. Peterson is one of the House’s most conservative Democrats but was defeated by Republican Michelle Fischbach.
As if symbolically, western Illinois Rep. Cheri Bustos, who leads the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, was in a tight race in a district she won by 24 points in 2018. Bustos declared victory, but The Associated Press had not called the race.
Before votes were counted, both parties’ operatives said the GOP would be fortunate to limit Democratic gains to modest single digits. Democrats control the House 232- 197, with five open seats and one independent. It takes 218 seats to control the chamber.
By retaining House control, Democrats would mark only the second time in a quarter century that they’ve led the chamber for two consecutive two- year congresses. The first period ran from 2007 through 2010, when Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D- Calif., was serving her first four years as speaker.
“Our purpose in this race was to win so that we could protect the Affordable Care Act and so that we could crush the virus,” Pelosi told reporters. She declared that Democrats had won the House majority, which seemed highly likely but hadn’t been officially determined by the AP.