Democrats are projected to retake the House majority in the 120th Congress, ending Republicans‘ trifecta in Washington to cap a night in which they sailed to victory in both chambers of Congress.
The magic number of 218 seats was obtained in the early hours of Wednesday morning, according to the Associated Press, with Johnny Garcia winning Texas’s 35th District, adding salt to the GOP’s wound as the seat was redrawn to try to guarantee a Republican victory during the 2025 redistricting frenzy.
The result was the cherry on top of a congressional sundae, after they secured a dominant victory in the Senate, with at least 54 seats.
The victory gives Democrats a foothold in Washington after they lost both chambers of Congress and the White House in the 2024 elections. For Republicans, the flipping of the House chambers throws GOP leadership into uncertainty and means President Donald Trump‘s agenda in his final two years in power will likely be stymied if not totally derailed. Trump himself told Fox News that he had already spoken with Democrats, although did not elaborate who he spoke to or what he spoke about.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) is expected to take the speaker’s gavel in the next session of Congress, but his path to doing so may be complicated by his incoming freshman class, which contains several socialist and progressive members who are reportedly angling for concessions in exchange for their support. Centrist-aligned Democrats also carried several districts across the Midwest and South.
“The American people have spoken and made clear they’ve had enough of the extremism, enough of the corruption,” Jeffries said at a press conference Tuesday night. “They want a Congress that’s going to deliver for the American people, and that is exactly what House Democrats will do as soon as we get into office in January. We understand, as House Democrats, that life is way too expensive in this great country of ours.”
Jeffries was introduced as “Speaker Jeffries,” and those at his election night watch party roared when he took the stage, hours after the drinks flowed from the open bar amid an energetic crowd of activists and staff.
Democrats have signaled that they intend to exercise their oversight authority over the Trump administration over the next two years, with plans to investigate Trump’s family’s business dealings, immigration enforcement tactics, the Epstein files, and more. In a sign of how difficult the president may find things, now-House oversight committee ranking member Robert Garcia (D-CA) advised the president to “LAWYER UP.”
BLUE WAVE CARRIES SENATE DEMOCRATS BACK INTO POWER FOR FINAL YEARS OF TRUMP PRESIDENCY
It remains to be seen whether Democrats will try to impeach Trump once again with their newfound majority. Democrats have been hesitant to pursue impeachment action against Trump, believing such a move may play in the president’s favor. Some Democrats have been outspoken in their support of impeaching members of the Cabinet, such as War Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Still, Jeffries said Democrats “haven’t ruled anything in, and we haven’t ruled anything out” when asked about impeachment.
Lauren Green contributed to this report.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
