Republicans on Saturday appeared close to capturing control of the US House of Representatives, a crucial element for Donald Trump to advance his agenda when the newly elected president returns to the White House in January.

With votes still being counted from the Nov. 5 general election, Republicans had gained 212 seats in the 435-member House of Representatives, according to Edison Research, which predicted Friday evening that Republican Jeff Hurd had enough votes to gain Republican control on retaining Colorado’s third congressional district. .

Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez won reelection Saturday to a U.S. House of Representatives seat representing Washington state, the Associated Press reported, defeating Republican Joe Kent in a rematch of one of the closest races of 2022.

Gluesenkamp Perez won the seat two years ago with just over 2,600 votes. Prior to her election, Gluesenkamp Perez owned an auto shop in a rural part of the district, which played a major role in her campaign.

The Republican-leaning district, which Donald Trump carried in 2020, includes the southwestern part of the state and some suburbs of Portland, Oregon, which merge into Washington state.

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Republicans need to win six more seats to retain control of the House of Representatives and have already scored enough victories to wrest control of the U.S. Senate from Democrats, although Edison Research predicted late Friday that Democratic U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen had won re-election in Nevada.

Rosen was a moderate for the first time in a presidential battleground state and was among the Republican Party’s top targets. She campaigned on lowering costs for the middle class, defending abortion rights and tackling the climate crisis. Over the summer, she introduced legislation that would allow extreme heat to be declared a disaster under federal law, pointing to heat waves that have devastated the West.

With Trump’s victory in the presidential election already decided and Republican control of the Senate already decided, holding on to the House of Representatives would give Republicans sweeping powers to potentially push a broad agenda of taxes and spending cuts, deregulation of the energy sector and border security controls.

The results of 19 House races remain unclear, especially in competitive districts in Western states, where the pace of vote counting tends to be slower than the rest of the country.

Ten of the seats are currently held by Republicans and nine by Democrats. Fourteen seats were widely considered competitive before the election.

Republican senators will decide next week who will serve as the party’s leader in the Senate in 2025, with John Thune, John Cornyn and Rick Scott vying for the job. On Saturday, Senators Bill Hagerty and Rand endorsed Paul Scott over the more senior Thune and Cornyn, who are considered favorites.

The Associated Press contributed to this report