Where The Race For The House Stands
There wasn’t a lot of clarity to be had tonight as the race for president and the Senate both remain too close to call. But as for the House of Representatives, we have a sense of where things are headed, as ABC News and other major media outlets have projected that Democrats will retain control of Congress’s lower chamber.
Coming into the night, this was the most likely outcome, too, as our forecast gave Democrats a 97 in 100 chance of holding onto a House majority. Democrats entered the night with 233 seats to the Republicans’ 201 (with one Libertarian member), so the GOP needed 17 seats to capture a majority. But so far, the only seats called by ABC News that have flipped are two Republican-held seats in North Carolina that changed dramatically due to court-ordered redistricting in 2019 — the 2nd and 6th congressional districts. This was expected, as our forecast gave Democrats better than a 99 in 100 shot in both.
That doesn’t mean that Democrats aren’t going to suffer losses, though. With at least 92 percent of the expected vote in from two Democratic-held seats in South Florida, it looks like the GOP will likely win the 26th and 27th congressional districts, which are mostly in Miami-Dade County, where Biden and other Democrats appear to have underperformed. Other media outlets have called those races for the GOP, which reflects the Republicans’ improved showing among Hispanic voters tonight in Florida, as both of those two seats have large Cuban American populations.
Lots of votes still have to be counted, but it looks all but certain that the House will still be in Democratic hands when the next Congress takes office in January 2021. And that means House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will keep her gavel for one more term, as she’s said she will not serve as speaker beyond the 117th Congress.