The Republican party has regained control of the House of Representatives after four years of Democrat control. While some elections have yet to be declared, the GOP has reached the 218 minimum to regain the majority in the House.
Roll Call reports that the Republican Party has yet to achieve unity on who will be the next Speaker of the House. The vote for nomination was 188-31 for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and the next Speaker will need all 218 votes. Thirty-one votes went to Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) . Five write-in votes went to someone other than Biggs, according to Rep. Bob Good (R-VA), Roll Call reports.
The ‘red wave’ Republicans hoped for turned into the loss of a few establishment GOP seats and a failure to take back the Senate. Rep. Andy Biggs stated, “The promised red wave turned into a loss of the United States Senate, a razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives, and upset losses of premiere political candidates.”
Although the Republicans did not take the amount of seats they hoped, the GOP was able to flip 21 Democrat seats. Several new seats went to women and minorities, causing Fox News to call the GOP the youngest and most diverse it has been in years.
In Texas, Wesley Hunt won a seat in a newly drawn district in the Houston area. Hunt told Fox News that he is excited to be a part of conservative leadership as a young Black Republican congressman. "This is a generational change," said Hunt. "A lot of us are millennials, but in the upper-end of the age range, we're getting into this fight because for far too long lawmakers in Washington, D.C. have been writing checks that we have to cash." He added that he was excited to see new faces in the House and to be one of the new members of Congress. “But it's not just about those that won,” Hunt said. “Look at how many women, combat veterans, African Americans and Hispanics ran under the Republican banner this cycle.”
Ben Shapiro of the Daily Wire commented that the midterms were a “red ripple,” and added that the party needed stronger leadership in the midst of Democrats having “outperformed expectations.”
Throughout the campaign season, Republicans focused on rising crime across the country and Biden’s impact on the economy, while Democrats zeroed in on abortion.
The Republican Party has declared that it will investigate the Biden Administration, the Hunter Biden laptop story, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ actions at the border, the withdrawal from Afghanistan, and Dr. Fauci’s handling of COVID-19. The new Congress will be sworn in on January 3, 2023.
Updated November 18: Rep. Lauren Boebert won reelection in Colorado, giving the GOP 219 seats in the House of Representatives.
