While Donald Trump’s victory in the White House was established early, the wait for final results for the House of Representatives has stretched on for almost a week, with thousands of votes still to be counted.

In 2022, it took more than a week to declare a Republican majority in the House of Representatives, with California withholding the final result.

Early this week, however, social media posts began claiming that the Republican Party had taken the lead, giving Republicans full control of Congress.

The claim

A message on The post included a map of the US showing Republicans gaining 218 seats, securing the majority in the House of Representatives.

The post was shared by Infowars founder Alex Jones.

The facts

It seems increasingly likely that Republicans will regain their majority in the House of Representatives, even if only by a small margin. With only a slim majority, it could make some of Donald Trump’s plans more difficult to achieve if more moderate Republicans sided with Democrats in the House of Representatives when it comes to major decisions.

As of Tuesday morning ET, Nov. 12, 2024, the results had not yet been announced by The Associated Press, with 214 Republican and 205 Democratic seats won and 16 more pending final counts.

According to Reuters, Edison Research has also not announced any results.

To regain control of the House, Democrats would need the majority of the remaining seats. As of Tuesday morning, most Republican candidates were in the lead in the remaining seats.

Despite the advantage Republicans appear to have, Johnson’s claim calling the House race is not without merit.

Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ), another election results provider, predicted that the House would win this week, handing 219 seats to Republicans and 210 to Democrats.

As projection site 270 reported to Win, it named Arizona’s 6th District on Monday for Republican Juan Ciscomani, who was reelected to a second term.

DDHQ states that it “includes both reported votes and estimates of remaining uncounted ballots to refine its predictions and provide a dynamic picture of each race as election night unfolds.”

By contrast, The Associated Press says it “does not make forecasts or name clear or likely winners.”

“If our race callers cannot definitively say that a candidate has won, we do not engage in speculation,” it says in its guide to how it declares election winners.

While AP has been providing international newsrooms with election results for decades, DDHQ handles its calls to many outlets, including The Hill and Vox, and has helped it make calls earlier than other analysts. NewsNation was the first to announce the results of the presidential election last week based on data from DDHQ, the newspaper reported Los Angeles Times.

The statement

Needs context.

Benny Johnson’s claim is based on a projection from Decision Desk HQ, an election results analysis firm used by a number of media outlets. The race has not been called by other analysts such as The Associated Press and Edison Research.

FACTS CHECK Newsweek‘s FactCheck team