WASHINGTON – Republicans retained their lock on the House for two more years early Wednesday as GOP candidates triumphed in a checkerboard of districts in Florida, Virginia and elsewhere that Democrats had hoped Donald Trump’s divisive comments about women and Hispanics would make their own.
Democrats who’d envisioned big gains in suburban and ethnically diverse districts instead seemed on track for modest pickups. Republican contenders were buoyed by the GOP presidential candidate’s tight battle against Democrat Hillary Clinton.
While expectations were nearly zero that Democrats would win the 30 seats they’d needed to capture House control for next year, both sides had anticipated they’d cut into the historic GOP majority by perhaps a dozen seats. Republicans currently hold a 247-188 majority, including three vacant seats, the most the GOP has commanded since their 270 in 1931.
By late evening, Republicans had won at least 218 seats – guaranteeing control – and just four of their incumbents had lost. The GOP retained seats in Minnesota, New York, Colorado, Iowa and Wisconsin that Democrats sought to grab, and Republicans prepared to build on their current six-year run of House control.
“This could be a really good night for America,” House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who won a 10th term, told supporters in his hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin.