Mainstream Media Joins Newsmax on Calling House for GOP (Newsmax/"The Chris Salcedo Show")
By Eric Mack | Wednesday, 16 November 2022 07:12 PM EST
One night after Newsmax declared the Republican Party official holders of the House majority, the mainstream media has come to call the 218th seat for the GOP.
NBC News and CNN both made their calls Wednesday night, having decided more races for Democrats (214 and 208, respectively) than Newsmax, despite being one day late on giving Republicans the clinching 218th seat.
President Joe Biden issued a statement after the mainstream media called the races, congratulating prospective current House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., for flipping control of the gavels in the Houe.
"I congratulate Leader McCarthy on Republicans winning the House majority, and am ready to work with House Republicans to deliver results for working families," Biden wrote in a statement.
Newsmax has projected 219 seats thus far for the GOP and 206 for Democrats with 10 races still too close to call.
Among the races that could expand the GOP majority:
- Colorado District 3 — Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., leading Democrat Adam Frisch by 1,122 votes.
- California District 22 — Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif., leads by more than 5 points.
Democrats can close the gap, leading these eight races:
- Alaska's lone House seat — Democrat Mary Peltola leads Republicans Sarah Palin and Nick Begich in the ranked-choice voting format, which would need Begich or Palin voters to have the other ranked No. 2 on their ballot by a vast majority. That will not be decided until Nov. 23.
- Maine District 2 — Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, leads Bruce Poliquin by more than 3 points in a race to be determined on ranked-choice voting.
- Oregon District 6 — Democrat Andrea Salinas leads Republican Mike Erickson by less than 3 points.
- California District 13 — Democrat Adam Gray leads Republican John Duarte trails by 761 votes.
- California District 21 — Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif., leads Republican Michael Maher by almost 9 points.
- California District 6 — Rep. Ami Bera, D-Calif., leads by more than 12 points.
- California District 15 — Democrat Kevin Mullin leads by more than 12 points.
- California District 47 – Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., leads Republican Scott Baugh by 2,891 votes.
NBC News has projected House Republicans to hold a 221-214 voting majority in the 435-seat House. Newsmax does not make projections until individual races are called, but the latest scorecard is above.
Americans will get two years of divided government as President Joe Biden's Democratic Party held control of the Senate, clinching the 50th seat and holding the edge on Vice President Kamala Harris' tiebreaking vote.
A Dec. 6 runoff between former President Donald Trump-endorsed Herschel Walker and Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., remains undecided, but it was merely give the GOP another 50-50 split that loses the majority on Harris' tiebreaking vote.
Still, the House majority gives Republicans the power to rein in Biden's agenda, as well as to launch investigations of his administration and family.
The final call came after more than a week of ballot counting, when Edison Research projected Republicans had won the 218 seats they needed to control the House. Republican victory in California's 27th Congressional district took the party over the line.
The party's current House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy might have a challenging road ahead as he will need his restive caucus to hold together on critical votes including funding the government and military at a time when former Trump has launched another run for the White House.
House Republicans are gearing up to investigate Biden administration officials and the president's son Hunter's past business dealings with China and other countries – and even Biden himself.
The United States returns to its pre-2021 power-sharing in Washington as voters were tugged in opposite directions by two main issues during the midterm campaigns.
High inflation gave Republicans ammunition for attacking liberals, who won trillions of dollars in new spending during the COVID-19 pandemic. With voters seeing their monthly grocery, gasoline and rent bills rising, so rose the desire for punishing Democrats in the White House and Congress.
Edison Research, in exit polls, found that nearly one-third of voters said inflation topped their concerns. For one-quarter of voters, abortion was the primary concern and 61% opposed the high-court decision in Roe v. Wade.
While the midterms were all about elections for the U.S. Congress, state governors and other local offices, hovering over it all was the 2024 U.S. presidential race.
The 2024 election will immediately influence many of the legislative decisions House Republicans pursue as they flex their muscles with a new-found majority, however narrow.
Conservatives are threatening to hold back on a needed debt-limit increase next year unless significant spending reductions are achieved.
"It's critical that we're prepared to use the leverage we have," House Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry told Reuters last month.
First, the House must elect a speaker for the next two years. House Republican Leader McCarthy on Tuesday won the support of a majority of his caucus to run for the powerful position to succeed Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
At Trump's 2024 presidential declaration Tuesday night, which aired live on Newsmax, said "isn't it nice" Pelosi will no longer be speaker.
With such a narrow majority, McCarthy was working to get commitments from nearly every member of his unruly Republican members, having failed in just such an endeavor during a 2015 bid. Freedom Caucus members, about four dozen in all, could hold the keys to his winning the speakership and the viability of his speakership writ large.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.