With a slew of pickups in hand and potentially more to come in uncalled races, House Republicans are redoubling their efforts to reclaim the House majority they lost in 2018.
After all the races are counted, House Republicans are likely to pick up between seven and 12 House seats. That still leaves Democrats with the House majority, albeit a weaker one than their pre-election level of 232 members in the 435-person chamber.
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Republican pickups this year beat oddsmakers who predicted House Democrats would expand their current majority by as much as 15 seats. And it gives them momentum heading into the 2022 midterm election cycle.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy asked House Republicans to support him again and touted his ability to lead the way to the majority in 2022.
“While a number of races remain outstanding — including, of course, President Trump’s — we can now confirm that we are several steps closer to our goal of re-earning a Republican majority in the People’s House,” the California Republican wrote to fellow Republicans. “Having been a part of the last successful Republican takeover of the House, I firmly believe this conference has what it takes to earn back the majority.”
According to National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Emmer, Republicans deployed successful campaign messaging to voters who were deciding between the GOP candidate and Democratic incumbents.
This ranged from running Republican candidates focused on bringing back law and order to their districts, to blaming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the lack of a coronavirus relief bill, to scrutinizing Democrats for investigating and impeaching the president.
“All [the Democrats] did for the two years is support a radical left-wing agenda that was going nowhere, voted to impeach the president, and tried to stop everything that was happening in Congress,” Emmer said. “So I think that was the bigger sales thing that’s more common across all of these.”
