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The Republican Party is likely to retain control of the House of Representatives in the coming days, but the composition of the House of Representatives will remain virtually unchanged, despite decisive victories in the presidential race and the battle for the US Senate.

GOP members are expected to win a single-digit majority at this point. Seventeen seats across the country remained up for grabs as of Monday evening, with Democrats currently leading in nine and Republicans in eight — in two cases by just a few hundred votes.

Of the races already called, Republicans have secured 214 – four short of a majority. The Democrats currently have 204 in the House. Notable incumbents on both sides lost seats, including Anthony D’Esposito in the Republican Party in New York and Susan Wild of Pennsylvania on the Democratic side.

The result is remarkable and would mark a clean slate for the party, with Donald Trump convincingly defeating Kamala Harris, winning seven of the seven contested swing states, winning the popular vote for the first time and even reducing its margins of defeat in a long time. reduce. Democratic bastions like Maryland.

But it could still cause headaches for the Republican Party next year. Case in point: the already turbulent state of the Republican majority in the House of Representatives, which has been hovering in the single digits for months and was so unruly even before that that it resulted in the impeachment and eventual resignation of Kevin McCarthy, the Republican who took on the role of president. speaker after well over a dozen votes.

With Donald Trump set to install loyalists within his administration, the real test for him this time – in terms of pushing through as much of his ultra-conservative, nationalist agenda as possible – will be presented by Congress.

His ability to unite and bully Mike Johnson’s members into playing by the rules will be critical to stopping the kind of rebellion that toppled McCarthy and could slow his legislative agenda.

Even his more optimistic aides are likely to privately agree that the party is at risk of losing the House of Representatives again in the upcoming midterm elections, even though the Senate may be out of Democrats’ reach thanks to a map their rivals once again draw. gives you an edge.

That’s still about a year and a half before an election will somehow hamper the Republican Party’s ability to pass policy through Congress. For perspective, last time the majority of the Republican Party and the Senate worked together to pass Trump’s signature tax cuts in his first year after he tried and failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The vast majority of Trump’s agenda was pursued through the executive branch.

He’ll be on essentially the same time frame — unless, of course, the Democrats fail to get their house in order between now and then. It is always possible that the Republicans will also occupy the House of Representatives in 2026.

On the Democratic side, the wounds remain extremely raw after last week’s defeat. Harris underperformed compared to Senate and House candidates in areas where her support collapsed, such as Dearborn, Michigan.

This was accompanied by the admission by Jon Favreau, Barack Obama’s former speechwriter, that Joe Biden’s own internal campaign research showed that Trump won 400 electoral votes in what had been an absolute bloodbath during the period when his aides and campaign officials angrily insisted that he was the leader was. best candidate to put forward. Such a loss would have been devastating for the electoral prospects of Biden’s allies in Congress.

The president-elect on Monday formally announced two Cabinet nominees: GOP conference chair Elise Stefanik as United Nations ambassador and former Rep. Lee Zeldin to lead the EPA.

The focus in the coming days will be on filling bigger positions in Trump’s Cabinet — including secretary of state, defense and attorney general — and news of the new administration’s first major legislative move.