A week after the midterm elections, Republicans have gained the 218 seats required for a majority in the lower chamber of Congress.
While the party’s House lead is razor-thin, it is sufficient to derail President Joe Biden’s program for the next two years.
The Senate, though, will remain under Democratic control when the next Congress convenes in January.
Only a few seats remain to be filled.
Republicans, who hoped to retake control of both houses, underperformed expectations in last week’s midterm elections.
But they got the seat they needed for a House majority on Wednesday when incumbent Mike Garcia won California’s 27th district.
According to CBS, the Republican Party is now expected to win between 218 and 223 seats in the 435-seat House.
However, because ballots in some tense races are still being counted, their majority may not be obvious for days or perhaps weeks.
Kevin McCarthy, the Republican contender to succeed Democrat Nancy Pelosi as the next Speaker of the House, celebrated having “officially flipped” the chamber on Tuesday.
To be elected Speaker, the House Republican minority leader must gain the support of a majority of the 435 members of the House.
Mrs. Pelosi, on the other hand, signaled that she would not go down lightly, declaring in a statement on Wednesday night that her party would exert “strong power on a slender Republican majority.”
Mrs. Pelosi, the first woman to hold the position, said nothing in her news release about whether she expected to continue as minority leader, despite speculation in Washington about her future.
President Biden complimented McCarthy and promised to collaborate with Republicans to get results for Americans.
Mr. McCarthy’s party thought that the president’s poor popularity, persistent inflation, and the fact that congressional districts were modified by Republican-led state legislatures would result in midterm gains for them.
Last week’s poor performance was mostly attributed to two party leaders: former President Donald Trump and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
On Tuesday night, the former president formally declared his third candidacy for the presidency in 2024 from a ballroom at his Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago.
Mr. McConnell was re-elected as Senate minority leader on Wednesday, defeating a challenge from fellow Republican Rick Scott of Florida.
On Wednesday, congressman Karen Bass defeated billionaire businessman Rick Caruso in the battle to become the next mayor of Los Angeles, America’s second-largest city.
The Democrat will be the city’s second black mayor and the first woman to hold the role.
