Post Politics Now McConnell reelected GOP leader; Republicans win control of the House

The head of the House GOP’s campaign arm was quick to celebrate the party’s win of control, even though Republicans will hold a razor-thin majority in the chamber.

“House Republicans delivered on our promise to fire Nancy Pelosi,” National Republican Campaign Committee Chair Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) said in a statement. “In the process, we picked up seats for the second straight cycle.”

Pelosi has, by no means, been fired from her job as a lawmaker. She will, however, not be House speaker come January. Republicans are yet to elect the member who will guide the chamber in the next Congress. Many expect House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to win the gavel for the first time.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who refused to comply with a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee, is now poised to chair the House Judiciary Committee.

That panel has oversight of the courts and law enforcement.

Jordan, a staunch ally of Donald Trump, has hinted at launching investigations of the FBI and the Justice Department if he wins the chairmanship.

Voters across the country shifted toward Republicans in the midterm elections — veering further right in areas won by former president Donald Trump and also tacking rightward in nearly all districts won by President Biden. House Republicans, however, picked up only a small number of seats.

The Republicans’ tally could grow as counting continues, but they will end up with a small majority. That unexpected result belies a broader movement to the right when comparing votes in each district with the presidential vote there two years ago. Republicans outran Trump’s margins in 343 districts. By comparison, Democrats outperformed Biden in just 69 districts.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) hopes to claim the speaker’s gavel in January though he faces opposition within the GOP.

Rep. Karen Bass was elected the next mayor of Los Angeles on Wednesday, taking the reins in the nation’s second-largest city during an intense period of soul-searching as it reels from a racism scandal and seeks fresh answers to seemingly intractable problems like homelessness and corruption.

As Reis Thebault reports, the Democratic congresswoman prevailed over billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso to become the first woman elected to lead the city and just its second Black mayor.

The race was Los Angeles’s most expensive contest ever and remained close until the final days of a week-long count, when Bass pulled decisively ahead and never lost her advantage. As of Wednesday evening, Bass held an insurmountable lead of just over six percentage points, and the Associated Press projected her the winner.

In Los Angeles, a liberal city that hasn’t elected a Republican mayor in more than two decades, Bass pitched herself as the progressive choice. But she also carried the imprimatur of the party establishment, winning endorsements from Democratic heavyweights like former president Barack Obama, President Biden and Vice President Harris.

Read more on Bass’s win here.

President Biden congratulated House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for his party’s success in winning the House back.

“I congratulate Leader McCarthy on Republicans winning the House majority, and am ready to work with House Republicans to deliver results for working families,” Biden said in a statement.

Biden urged bipartisanship in the next Congress.

“As I said last week, the future is too promising to be trapped in political warfare,” Biden said. “The American people want us to get things done for them. They want us to focus on the issues that matter to them and on making their lives better. And I will work with anyone — Republican or Democrat — willing to work with me to deliver results for them.”

Republicans are projected to win control of the House, ensuring two years of a divided legislature in the remainder of President Biden’s first term.

The Associated Press and Edison Research project that Republican Rep. Mike Garcia will win the seat for California’s 27th District, defeating Democrat Christy Smith — bringing the Republican House seat total to 218.

The call comes eight days after the Nov. 8 election. Democrats were projected to hold the Senate majority on Saturday.

As Hannah Knowles and Marianna Sotomayor report, Republicans needed to flip at least five seats to retake the House and are on track to fulfill that goal with little room to spare. But their gains fell well short of the red wave they once envisioned.

House Democrat Jared Golden won reelection in Maine’s 2nd District, the Associated Press and Edison Research project, giving his party some relief in a swing district.

Golden’s defeat of Republican challenger Bruce Poliquin means the GOP is still one seat away from a razor-thin House majority. Control of the House had still not been decided as of Wednesday night.

The race call came over a week after election night, because of Maine’s ranked-choice voting. Votes cast in the general election for the race’s third-place finisher, independent candidate Tiffany Bond, had to be redistributed to Golden or Poliquin. In the final round, Golden defeated Poliquin by about 20,000 votes.

Former vice president Mike Pence said he’s “closing the door” on the possibility that he will testify before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol or even answer the panel’s questions.

Pence, in an interview with CBS News, wrongly described the committee as “partisan.” Two Republicans — Reps. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) — sit on it. The former vice president also complained that the committee was created by Democrats.

The vice president said it seemed to him “in the beginning” that there was an opportunity to create an investigative panel “more in the spirit of the 9/11 commission, nonpartisan, nonpolitical and that was an opportunity lost.”