Republicans to keep House control, AP projects

WASHINGTON — Republicans will keep control of the House of Representatives, AP projects Wednesday night, giving President-elect Donald Trump a trifecta of Republican leadership. The GOP will control the presidency, the Senate and the House, for the first time since 2019. 

The election saw the Republicans flip at least three Senate seats and win back control of that chamber with a 52 to 47 lead over Democrats as of Wednesday night. The Senate race in Pennsylvania was too close to call as of Wednesday night, with Republican Dave McCormick holding a narrow lead of around 28,000 votes over his Democratic opponent three-term U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. Although McCormick was invited by Republican leadership to attend freshman senate orientation. 

Nine seats were still undecided as votes continue to be counted on Wednesday night, according to AP. Four of these seats are in California where state law allows mail-in ballots postmarked on Election Day up to seven days after the election to be included in the count. Alaska, Maine, Iowa, Ohio and Oregon all had one seat each that had yet to be decided as of Wednesday. 

Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani, who represents parts of the Tucson, Ariz. suburbs, was the race that gave the GOP the 218 seats needed to maintain control of the House. As of Wednesday night, Republicans led Democrats 218-211 in that chamber. 

Speaker of The House Mike Johnson (R-La.) also won the GOP nomination on Wednesday keeping his current role, with a full House vote expected in January. 

The House of Representatives has also been in the news Wednesday as President-elect Trump announced his cabinet picks. Already, two of Trump's picks have come from within the house of representatives: with Florida Republicans Matt Gaetz and Mike Waltz offered positions inside the Trump administration as attorney general and National Security Advisor. 

Rep. Gaetz resigned from the House of Representatives on Wednesday in hopes that Florida's Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis could fill his vacancy ahead of the swearing-in ceremony of the 119th Congress in January.