House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) speaks to reporters as he leaves the House Republican caucus for the House of Representatives on Capitol Hill on Monday, November 14, 2022. in Washington, DC.
Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
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Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) speaks to reporters as he leaves the House Republican caucus for the House of Representatives on Capitol Hill on Monday, November 14, 2022. in Washington, DC.
Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
It wasn’t the red wave many top Republicans predicted, according to the Associated Press, but the GOP has won enough contested seats to take control of the House. With several races still to be called a week after Election Day, the Republican Party has picked up at least 218 seats and will take over the chamber next year with Republican leaders facing criticism over the election. failure to achieve what many consider a favorable political climate for their party.
The single-digit margin has the potential to usher in a new era of divided government in Washington. Heading into the 2022 midterm elections, Democrats know that historical trends will favor the party losing its seat. The Democrats’ five razor-thin majority of seats in the House, plus a significant number of retired veterans, have created an uphill battle for them to stay in power. Yet despite those historic setbacks, Democrats did much better than expected in this year’s midterm elections and retained control of the Senate.
The Republican House of Representatives is likely to clash on most issues with the Democratic Senate in 2023, with bitter squabbles over basic functions like funding the government at risk. paralyze Washington.
Republican candidates hope to capitalize on voter frustration with rising grocery and gas costs, turning the election into a referendum on President Joe Biden and his party. He ruled both the White House and Congress. But voters in opinion polls pointed to other issues such as abortion rights and the defense of democracy included in their decisions at the ballot box. The New York and Florida regional redistricting also helped the GOP overcome lackluster results in most races judged to be upside down.
The last time the president and top congressional leaders were from different parties was in 2019, when Democrats regained control of the House in the 2018 midterm elections, two years after the former President Donald Trump was elected president. A Republican majority in the House would mean President Biden’s legislative program is essentially dead, unless he can find bipartisan support for some of the proposals drafted in the Senate. narrow range. Biden’s focus for the next two years of his presidency will likely be on defending his standout achievements, such as the prescription drug discount bill and invest hundreds of billions of dollars to tackle climate change. GOP lawmakers have said they want to cancel some of Biden’s programs or cancel funding for many of them.
Biden’s White House will also face an onslaught of investigations into multiple issues. Top GOP members on the House Judiciary and Oversight committees have said they exploration plan the business dealings of Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, the president’s border policies, the origins of the coronavirus, and the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. But because the margin is so thin, there could be pressure from more moderate Republicans to retract some investigations and instead focus on issues that suggest a GOP can rule.
New House speaker, new agenda
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., is poised to take on the role of speaker in January when the new Congress is sworn in and the entire polling booth takes the top spot, second to the post. the presidency, after the vice president. chairperson. McCarthy is a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump and will manage a GOP conference with many members largely loyal to Trump.
But although McCarthy is on track to win an internal vote for the position this week, he currently doesn’t have the 218 votes he will need in a public vote on January 3, when The new parliament elects a speaker.
McCarthy ran for speaker for the first time in 2015 to succeed Speaker John Boehner, who is retiring. But you sudden retreat out of the race, a sign that he had no votes. He went on to serve as House Speaker Paul Ryan’s number two at the leadership desk, and has since developed close relationships with many conservatives who have derailed the original effort. his head for the top spot. McCarthy is considered skilled at developing personal relationships during his conference after years of campaigning across the country and raising money for GOP candidates. But he has not developed much track record as a legislator.
McCarthy and top GOP leaders revealed their agendacalled “Commitment to America” in September. It focuses on big goals in four areas: the economy, security, individual freedom, and government accountability.
Representative Jim. Jordan, who is expected to take over as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and the director of the FBI Christopher Wray a week before the election outlines the long list of documents the council is seeking and directs the agency’s heads to preserve the documents before investigations resume in 2023.
Republicans also plan to change House rules that now allow voting by proxy — a practice Democrats have adopted during the coronavirus pandemic. They also pledged to remove the magnetometers placed at the entrances to the House floors after the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
Questions about the future of Democratic, business leaders linger
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., 82, has not yet announced whether she will run to lead the Democratic House of Representatives. In 2007, Pelosi became the first woman to become a speaker, breaking the so-called marble ceiling in Congress. She took up the hammer for a second time in 2019, after her party’s leader won a majority, but said she would stick to a pledge that helped her win speaker votes to introduce term her leadership. Many newer members have expressed support for paving the way for a new, potentially younger Democrat to take the reins of the caucus. The current caucus chair, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, DN.Y., is expected to run for minority leader if Pelosi decides to retire.
But the Democrats’ strong record in the midterm elections has frozen any movement to replace Pelosi. She says some of her colleagues are urging her to run for re-election for the top leadership position and says the attack on her husband Paul Pelosi about 10 days before the election will affect her decision.
Before Republicans took control of the House, Congress was getting ready for a session expected to last through the end of the year. The leaders hope to finalize a bipartisan budget deal to fund government agencies throughout the rest of the fiscal year and avoid the possibility of a government shutdown. Pelosi also indicated that she wants Congress to raise the debt limit to avoid any controversial debate and the risk of default early next year.
Democratic leaders have plans, too through the law that would clarify how Congress confirmed the results of presidential elections with an amendment to the Vote Counts Act, a law first enacted in 1887. Trump and his colleagues His allies exploited confusion about the provisions of the law on January 6, 2021, and lawmakers say the new legislation is needed to prevent another attack on the Capitol.
