Republicans kept their grip on the House of Representatives on Tuesday, overcoming months of efforts by Democrats to tarnish them by association with Donald J. Trump in what proved to be a grave miscalculation.
With a handful of races outstanding Wednesday morning, Democrats had a net gain of just five seats and were expected to remain in the minority, a position they have occupied since Republicans swept to power in 2010 on a wave of Tea Party fervor.
In the few districts that changed hands, it was not perennially endangered Republicans in typical swing districts who were falling, but rather some incumbents who had been comfortably re-elected in the past.
In an early victory, Democrats toppled Representative John L. Mica, a Florida Republican who had cruised to re-election since coming to Congress in 1993. Mr. Mica was defeated by Stephanie Murphy, a business professor and former national security specialist. Ms. Murphy was able to take advantage of a district that had been redrawn.
In another redrawn Florida district, encompassing St. Petersburg, Charlie Crist, the former Republican governor turned Democrat, defeated Representative David Jolly.
In New Jersey, Representative Scott Garrett, a conservative Republican who just finished his seventh term, lost to Josh Gottheimer, a former Clinton administration speechwriter.
And Democrats eyed Representative Darrell Issa’s once-safe seat in Southern California, hoping to bring down the former chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, one who relished his role as an Obama administration antagonist. By Wednesday morning, his race was still too close to call, with the possibility that it would not be called for days. (The state’s vote-by-mail system allowed voters to postmark their ballots as late as Tuesday.)
There was no doubt that Democrats would pick up seats this year, chipping away at the Republicans’ 247-member majority, their largest since the 1930s. But Democrats ultimately fell well short of expectations. Nonpartisan estimates had anticipated House Democrats could pick up between five to 20 out of about two dozen seats considered up for grabs — most of them held by Republicans.
The possibility that Democrats could gain at least 30 seats and retake the majority was always considered far-fetched.
As it became clear that Republicans could not only hold both chambers but also claim the presidency, Republicans who had braced to lose all but the House began entertaining notions of a sweep. That would open the possibility of the passage of the party’s long-stalled agenda, Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma said Tuesday night.
Click here to read more.
SOURCE: NY Times, Emmarie Huetteman
BCNN1 WP 