Washington [US], November 15: The Republican Party has won enough seats to maintain control over the House of Representatives, cementing a dominant performance in the 2024 United States elections.
The Associated Press news agency announced that the party had hit the key threshold of 218 seats, out of a total of 435, late on Wednesday.
The victory in the House not only gives the Republicans leadership over both chambers of Congress, but it also assures that the party holds sway over all major branches of government.
In the November 5 general elections, Republican leader and former President Donald Trump also won the White House by a commanding margin, campaigning on an "America first" platform. And thanks to justices appointed during Trump's last term in office, the Supreme Court has a six-to-three supermajority in the conservatives' favour. "We stand united, determined, and ready to deliver the America First Agenda," House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote on social media earlier in the day, in the lead-up to the announcement.
While many races - including the battle for the presidency - were called within hours of the polls closing on Election Day, the fight for control of the House took more than a week to decide. That is because of the large number of seats at stake and the tight nature of some individual races.
Every two years, all 435 seats in the House are up for re-election. That marks a stark contrast with the upper chamber of Congress, the Senate, where terms are six years in length, and only a third of the senators face re-election at any given time.
With House races unfolding across the country, election laws and protocols in different states also contributed to delays in tallying the results. Some states, like California, send mail-in ballots to all registered voters. Sorting through the returned ballots can be a time-consuming process.
Source: Qatar Tribune