House Republicans declared victory in the 2024 election Tuesday, securing control for another two years and winning a much-coveted trifecta of the White House, Senate and lower chamber.
The party’s House swing-district candidates picked up half a dozen seats in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Michigan, although the GOP suffered disappointing losses in New York.
“It’s morning again in America,” declared National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Richard Hudson at a press conference on the US Capitol’s East steps in DC. “Voters delivered House Republicans a majority and sent Donald Trump to the White House in a landslide.”
Democratic incumbent opponents fell in the Keystone State’s 7th and 8th Districts to Republican Rep.-elect’s Ryan Mackenzie and Robert Bresnahan, respectively, and in the Tar Heel State’s 6th, 13th and 14th Districts to the GOP’s Addison McDowell, Brad Knott and Tim Moore.
Voters also chose Michigan Republican Tom Barrett to represent them in the House over Democrat Curtis Hertel in the local 7th District — an open-seat race because of Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin’s ultimately successful bid for the US Senate.
Some GOPers in deep-blue states such as New York also triumphed over their Democratic challengers, with Reps. Mike Lawler and Nick LaLota securing second terms repping the Empire State’s 17th and 1st Districts.
In California, Republican Reps. David Valadao, Ken Calvert and Michelle Steel each held off strong Democratic challengers to keep their seats — and GOP Rep. John Duarte was maintaining a lead against his opponent as of Tuesday morning, with nearly 60% of all ballots counted.
President-elect Trump joined GOP Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Ashley Hinson, Zach Nunn and Randy Feenstra in cruising to wins in Iowa, too — despite an ominous survey from famed pollster J. Ann Selzer predicting the weekend before Election Day that Dem Vice President Kamala Harris was beating Trump in the Hawkeye State.
Meanwhile, Colorado’s 8th District flipped in the GOP’s favor, with candidate Gabe Evans ousting freshman Democratic Rep. Yadira Caraveo
In Alaska’s at-large district, Republican Nick Begich also is expected to beat first-term Democrat Mary Peltola, who has held her seat in the Frontier State since a special election in 2022. Republican Rep. Don Young had long represented the district, from 1973 until his death two years ago.
The GOP wins are a big boost for Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, who told The Post last month that he was “very bullish” on his conference’s chances to achieve a government unified under the party this election cycle.
“Voters rejected what they really felt was the misery of the last four years,” Johnson (R-La.) said at Tuesday’s press conference. “We are going to raise an ‘America First’ banner above this place. … Republicans in the House and Senate have a mandate.
“This leadership will hit the ground running to deliver President Trump’s agenda in 119th Congress, and we will work closely with him and his administration to turn this country around and unleash, as he says, a new golden age in America,” the House speaker added.
While acknowledging that he was “still waiting the final outcome” of some races, Johnson said, “We believe we’re going to have a larger majority than we had last time.”
As of Tuesday, House Democrats had lost one net-seat and Republicans were up by one net-seat, according to the RealClearPolitics map of national races, with a 209-219 party divide.
Still, unlike the 2022 midterms, several New York Republicans lost against Democrats in swing districts — including Reps. Anthony D’Esposito, Brandon Williams and Marc Molinaro.
With his slightly expanded majority, Johnson (R-La.) is likely to retain the gavel once the new Congress convenes Jan. 3.
The RealClearPolitics average of recent surveys gave the GOP a bare 0.4% advantage on the generic congressional ballot as voters headed to the polls.
The lower chamber had been narrowly divided in the 118th Congress, with 220 Republicans and 212 Democrats seated as of Election Day, with three seats vacant.
Johnson won the gavel in a unanimous vote of Republican confidence more than three weeks after the ouster of Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in October 2023 — and was buffeted by intra-party fights and Senate Democratic obstruction for the remaining 13 months of the session.
The most significant legislative packages to receive bipartisan support and pass both chambers were several federal spending bills, defense funding, the renewal of the government’s warrantless spy powers and a $95 billion foreign aid bill to assist Israel and Ukraine’s war efforts.
Before Johnson became speaker, McCarthy (R-Calif.) led his conference in successful negotiations to raise the nation’s debt ceiling in April 2023.
But it was otherwise a largely unproductive Congress, with the House and Senate last year passing the fewest laws since 1989.
Members of the 119th Congress will be sworn in Jan. 3, and the certification of the 2024 electoral count will take place Jan. 6.
