Republicans have managed to hold on to their narrow majority in the House of Representatives, according to NBC News projects. In doing so, they have once again captured a trifecta in Washington, with control of both chambers of Congress and the White House.
The path to this outcome seemed narrow after Republicans’ disappointing performance in the House of Representatives in the 2022 midterm elections and two years of chaos that limited successes to an absolute minimum. It now appears that their majority in the new Congress will once again be small. But it means that the Republican Party in the House of Representatives will still have the numbers it needs to support President-elect Donald Trump’s return to power — that is, if it can quell its own power struggles.
Much of the current Congress is devoted to intra-party fighting between establishment conservatives and the most belligerent corner of the far right. The Republicans gained momentum by requiring fourteen ballots to elect a Speaker, bringing the House to a standstill. The winner, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., lasted less than a year and became the first speaker to be removed from office, felled by a small group of Republican agitators and Democrats he consistently rejected. It took the Republican Party another three weeks to decide on his replacement: Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana, who was spared a similar fate with these results.
But predictably, victory doesn’t mean no more fighting among Republicans. The minuscule margin of the past two years will not be much wider this year, leading to a case where just a few deviations could stall legislation in the House of Representatives despite a united Democratic front. And Trump has already called on several members of the House of Representatives to join his administration, potentially leaving those seats vacant for months.
Furthermore, in the wake of McCarthy’s impeachment, many Republican Party representatives want to increase the number of members needed to force such votes in the future (only one member is now needed to reach a vote). However, if the status quo continues, Johnson will have the same sword hanging over him, ready to come down if he does not appear submissive enough to Trump.
This is a development story. Check back for updates.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
