WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on new House members from North Carolina (all times local):
6:30 p.m.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has sworn in two Republicans who won special elections in North Carolina last week.
One is conservative Dan Bishop. As a state legislator, he wrote North Carolina’s 2016 law restricting which public bathrooms transgender people may use. It was later repealed.
Bishop won a district that stretches eastward from Charlotte by 2 percentage points. Donald Trump carried the district by 11 points in the 2016 presidential election.
Bishop did poorly among suburban voters but well with rural residents. That continued a trend that could wound the GOP as it tries retaining the White House and strengthening their numbers in Congress in 2020.
Also sworn in was Republican Greg Murphy. The physician and state legislator was easily elected in a strongly GOP coastal district.
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2:30 p.m.
Two Republicans who triumphed in North Carolina special elections were set to join the House on Tuesday, including one whose narrow win showed anew that suburban voters are deserting the GOP while rural residents are embracing the party.
The swearing-in of Dan Bishop and Greg Murphy will bring the House to full strength, if only for a few days. A lawmaker from Wisconsin has said he will relinquish his office next week.
For now, the new additions will leave Democrats controlling the chamber by 235-199, plus one independent. If that margin doesn’t change, that means the GOP will need to gain 19 seats in the 2020 elections to recapture House control, a surge that will be difficult.
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