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It wasn’t the red wave many top Republicans predicted, but the GOP eked out enough wins in contested seats to gain control of the House of Representatives, according to the Associated Press. With some races still not called a week after Election Day, Republicans picked up at least 218 seats, and will take over the chamber next year with GOP leaders facing blowback about failing to deliver in what many considered a favorable political environment for their party.
The potentially single-digit margin ushers in a new era of divided government in Washington. Going into the 2022 midterm elections, Democrats knew historic trends would favor that the party out of power gains seats. House Democrats razor-thin five-seat majority, plus a significant number of retirements by veteran members, set up an uphill battle for them to retain power. Yet despite those historical headwinds, Democrats did much better than expected in this year’s midterms and kept control of the Senate.
A Republican House will likely clash on most issues with a Democratic Senate in 2023, with bitter fights over basic functions like funding the government threatening to paralyze Washington.
GOP candidates hoped to capitalize on voter frustration with the rising costs of groceries and gas, framing the election as a referendum on President Joe Biden and his party’s rule of both the White House and Congress. But voters in exit polls indicated other issues like abortion rights and protecting democracy factored into their decisions at the ballot box. Redistricting in New York and Florida also helped the GOP overcome lackluster results in most of the races rated as toss-ups.
The last time the president and top congressional leaders were from different parties was 2019, when Democrats regained control of the House in the 2018 midterms, two years after former President Donald Trump was elected president. A new House Republican majority will mean President Biden’s legislative agenda is essentially dead, unless he can find bipartisan support for some narrowly crafted proposals. Biden’s focus during the next two years of his presidency will likely be spent defending his signature accomplishments, like a bill lowering prescription drug prices and investing hundreds of billions of dollars to tackle climate change.
