Given that the Democrats control the Senate, they hope for a result that was almost inconceivable a week ago: retaining the House.
Could the Democrats achieve this remarkable feat?
Experts are staring to say the unthinkable:
Maybe yes.
Dems Preparing for a Breakout
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nevada) was proclaimed the winner against Adam Laxalt (R-Nevada) late on Saturday night, guaranteeing Democrats at least a 50-50 divide in the upper chamber prior to the Georgia runoff in early December.
After her victory, all eyes are on House.
There are still twenty unclaimed seats, and the Democrats have quite a legitimate, albeit slim, chance of retaining the lower chamber too though.
To retain the House, Democrats would have to win nearly all of the uncalled contests. This remains improbable, and the Republicans are still expected to take control of the house.
But any lead – for any party — would likely be exceedingly slim, a big setback for the Republican Party, which boasted of a red tsunami even on election day.
Washington commentators stated that Democrats couldn’t win because of history, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated on ABC’s “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos on Sunday morning.
She said that elections pertain to the future and she’s quite pleased with their candidates.
Democrats secured the Senate late Saturday night, thanks to Nevada. Now, with 21 seats still uncalled, all eyes are on the House. https://t.co/ekAb5epSIT
— POLITICO (@politico) November 13, 2022
What About the Red Wave?
Only five of the 26 House seats that were predicted before the election to be competitive are still undecided.
To capture the chamber, Democrats would probably need to capture all five of these, the other three uncalled contests anticipated as “lean Democratic” — where they presently hold a lead in all three — and several districts initially predicted to be “lean Republican.”
Several of these unresolved contests are in California, where so many ballots go uncounted and where mail-in ballots caused a significant change in the weeks and days after Election Day in 2018.
"Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) was declared the winner over Republican Adam Laxalt late Saturday night, securing Democrats at least a 50-50 split in the upper chamber…. After her win, all eyes turn to the House."https://t.co/Zk30Oolelz
— PA Center for Women & Politics (@PCWP_Chatham) November 14, 2022
Sunday afternoon, the Associated Press declared Republican nominee Lori Chavez-DeRemer the winner of the vacant seat contest in Oregon’s 5th District, where the GOP was somewhat favored. This brought the number of Republicans to 212.
Pelosi admitted in the discussion that her party still faced an uphill battle to reclaim the House. “We’ll see” was the extent of her response to a query regarding the potential.
She said that she had been “disappointed” by the results of a number of crucial House races in New York that Republicans won after the state Supreme Court threw out a partisan map drawn by the Democratic-controlled state legislature.
Republicans Are Rightfully Worried
Pelosi stated that those four votes may make a change in the end, b ut that Democrats haven’t lost hope. She also declined to comment on whether she would compete for speaker again if the Democrats were to win.
The last ninety-six hours have been difficult for House Republicans.
Rep. Jim Banks (R-Indiana), who is competing for House GOP whip, stated during a Sunday morning appearance on “Fox News Sunday” that election night’s results were very disheartening and not what he expected. He went on to say the outcome will be extensively analyzed for weeks to ahead.
