House Republicans are one seat away from capturing the majority in the lower chamber after winning three districts, two in California and one in New York.
These wins bring the GOP to 217 seats in the House of Representatives, one seat from the 218 necessary to take control from the Democrats, who are at 204.
Late Monday evening, The Associated Press called the reelections of Reps. Michelle Steel and Ken Calvert of California, and in New York’s 22nd District, the AP called the race for Brandon Williams, a Republican Navy veteran.
Fourteen House races, largely in California, are still uncalled as of late Monday night. Republicans lead in four uncalled races, while Democrats lead in 10.
Eight of those 10 Democratic-led races have more than 75 percent of the votes counted.
Democrats hope they can maintain the House after keeping control of the Senate this cycle after Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat, won Nevada.
“We’re just focused on making sure that every single vote gets counted in the outstanding races because there’s still a path to 218,” Democratic House Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries told The Washington Times. “And that’s the most important thing that we can focus on at the moment.”
Republicans only need to win one of the races currently led by Reps. Mike Garcia, David Valadao, Kevin Kiley of California or Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado.
While Ms. Boebert’s race has more than 95 percent of the votes in, the remaining three have between 54 to 65 percent of the votes counted.
Democrat Adam Frisch, Ms. Boebert’s opponent, who trails her by about 1,100 votes, said their race could go into an automatic recount if the margin is within .5 percent.
“If we get in a recount, I’m not sure they’re gonna have a result until December 13, or something like that,” he said.
Mr. Garcia told The Washington Times he thinks his campaign is in a “good position” to win.
“We are in a good position … but I think we’re up now 9%. And so we expect three or four days of returns, probably with six to 8000 ballots a day to come in — a normal profile for us,” he said.
“We’ll have around 50 percent to 55 percent share. So now we’re not concerned. We’re on the right side of the map.”
The latest race calls came hours after House Republicans prepared to conduct their official internal leadership elections on Tuesday.
The party fell short of the predicted red wave that would have given them dozens of new seats, and the dismal results sparked consternation among party members in both chambers on capitol hill this week.
GOP lawmakers held their candidate leadership forum on Monday, where House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California sought out support in his quest for speaker in the first closed-door meeting among House Republicans since the midterm election.
In Monday’s forum, Mr. McCarthy told Republicans that regardless of the size of their majority, they will have control of the chamber and stop the Democrats’ agenda.
“They don’t give out gavels in small, medium and large. We have the majority, and we have the gavel,” Mr. McCarthy, 57, told the Republican lawmakers, according to a source in the room.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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