Republicans optimistic about securing control of US House of Representatives as counting continues | US elections 2024

Control of the U.S. House of Representatives was at stake as vote counting entered its fourth day on Friday, more than two dozen general elections had yet to be called and Republicans grew increasingly confident that they were on track to take the gavel win.

Success in the chamber would pave the way for a new era of unified Republican governance in Washington after the party captured the majority in the Senate and Americans voted decisively to return Donald Trump to power.

Democrats are still confident they could win a razor-thin majority as the sole check on Trump’s sprawling second-term agenda.

House Republicans led 211 to 199 as of Friday morning with 25 races remaining, according to the Associated Press. Many are in California and other Western states, where counting can take many days, especially in close races. The 2022 congressional midterm elections took more than a week to make the decision.

On Thursday evening, Republican Congresswoman Young Kim was declared the winner in a battleground district in California. Earlier in the day, Republicans in Pennsylvania flipped two House seats after Ryan Mackenzie defeated incumbent Democratic Congresswoman Susan Wild and Robert Bresnahan unseated Democratic Congressman Matt Cartwright.

Meanwhile, in the Senate, Pennsylvania Republican David McCormick unseated three-term Democratic Sen. Bob Casey on Thursday, according to an Associated Press call. The victory increases Republicans’ majority in the chamber to 53, with two races remaining.

All 435 members of the House of Representatives were up for re-election, with Republicans looking to expand their slim majority after two chaotic years in power.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson was re-elected to a fifth term and announced in a letter Wednesday afternoon that he would seek re-election as speaker. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is also running for office again.

Elise Stefanik, another staunch Trump ally and the highest-ranking woman among Republicans in the House, won a sixth term in New York, where Democrats flipped three Republican seats.

Scalise outlined the priorities of the Trump administration’s first 100 days, including measures to “secure the border” and ending the pause on LNG exports. “[Trump] “We can begin to get our economy back on track by reducing certain regulations and making the administrative state more efficient,” he said in a separate letter seeking support.

Scalise said House Republicans would “lock in” tax cuts, “unlock American energy,” increase energy exploration and production and repeal unspecified Democratic policies put in place by the Inflation Reduction Act. The new administration will also “increase resources for building the Trump Border Wall” on the southern border, he added, while increasing border patrols to “stop the flow of illegal immigration.”

Meanwhile, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries argued that “the House remains very much in play.” The path to victory for Democrats lies in seats in Arizona, Oregon, Iowa and California, he said.

“It is not yet clear which party will have the majority in the House of Representatives in January 2025. We have to count every vote,” Jeffries said.

In an election marked by intense anti-transgender rhetoric from Republicans, voters in Delaware elected the first transgender member of Congress, Democrat Sarah McBride, 34.

So far, both Democrats and Republicans have gained seats due to redistricting, the process of adjusting district boundaries to keep pace with population changes, with Democrat Shomari Figures of Alabama winning a district that was changed to ensure fair representation of black voters ensure Republicans in North Carolina flipped three districts that had been redrawn by the Republican-controlled state legislature.

Democrats also flipped two seats in New York state, with Democrat Josh Riley, a lawyer, defeating incumbent Republican Marc Molinaro and John Mannion, a Democratic state senator, defeating incumbent Republican Brandon Williams in New York state.

According to the Associated Press, 10 of the most hotly contested House races are in California, where Democrats need to flip at least one Republican seat to secure a majority.

Without control of the House of Representatives, Trump, the winner of the presidential election, could will face significant hurdles in implementing its legislative agenda. Election forecasts suggest that either party could end up with a majority of just a few seats, which could revisit some of the problems of the 118th Congress.

Read more of the Guardian’s coverage of the 2024 US election