CNN
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Speaker Mike Johnson and the Republican Party are feeling increasingly optimistic about holding on to the House of Representatives, believing they have defied political gravity in key suburban seats, while President-elect Donald Trump moves his party toward what could lead to a complete breakthrough in Washington.

Dozens of key races remain uncalled and it could take days or weeks before results are official. But both Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representatives privately believe the Republican Party will retain control, according to half a dozen senior campaign aides.

“We’re going to keep the House of Representatives,” a senior Republican Party campaign official said Wednesday. “The question is how big the majority is at the moment.”

A senior Democratic source admitted to CNN that the party was unlikely to flip the House of Representatives given the excellent races. However, Democrats in the House of Representatives insist it is too early for an autopsy. The caucus will hold an internal call Thursday afternoon to discuss the results so far, according to a person familiar with the conversations.

It is not yet clear whether the Republicans will maintain the same narrow margin of five seats; they could still lose incumbent Republicans in blue states like California and Oregon. Still, the seats the Republican Party expects to hold show surprising strength in places where Democrats were confident they would win, such as Nebraska and Pennsylvania.

Democrats still expect to hold on to a few key seats: Jared Golden in Maine and Marcy Kaptur in Ohio are both narrowly ahead, against expectations, in heavily Trump territory. And in New York, they flipped one seat, while Democrats are optimistic about two more seats.

But a number of other mandatory seats have disappeared, including one seat in Pennsylvania and an open seat in Michigan. Another Pennsylvania Democrat, Susan Wild, has conceded to her Republican opponent, although CNN has not yet predicted that race.

To win the House of Representatives now, Democrats believe they must retain all their remaining incumbents — including in tough terrain like Washington state and Colorado — while essentially capturing Republican seats in California, Oregon and Arizona, according to multiple Democratic sources.

“We have to play a perfect game and that’s probably not going to happen,” a senior House campaign official said.

Perhaps the biggest surprise yet for both parties is Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska. Democrats had expected to easily defeat the centrist Republican, with Vice President Kamala Harris dumping millions of dollars to win the electoral vote there while Trump put his money elsewhere. One Democratic official called it a “must win” for their party to win the majority.

That race remains unresolved, but both Republicans and Democrats expect Bacon to retain the seat.