Democrats To Win Control Of House Of Representatives

WASHINGTON ― Democrats are projected to win a majority of seats in the House of Representatives, giving them control of the chamber next year for the first time since January 2023, CNN and NBC report.

Controlling the House means Democrats will control which bills get voted on and what committees investigate, meaning the Donald Trump administration will be in for a rush of subpoenas.

Democrats have also signaled they will consider impeachment inquiries against Trump and members of his Cabinet, especially Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the incoming chair of the House Oversight Committee, has said he’ll pursue aggressive investigations of Trump’s family business and the cover-up of the Epstein files. He issued a two-word statement Tuesday night in response to news that Democrats would win the House.

“Lawyer up,” Garcia said.

The president warned his supporters about impeachment and begged them to pretend he was on the ballot, which they may have done. The rejection of a majority of Republican House candidates is an implicit rejection of an unpopular Trump, whose war in Iran spiked gas prices and who broke his twin 2024 promises to cut inflation and not start new wars.

Democrats took the economic lesson of 2024 to heart, with many campaigning on an affordability message. Even when they criticized the president, they sought to tie Trump’s political agenda and self-enrichment schemes to ordinary Americans’ struggle to afford life necessities.

“Everything has become more expensive here in America because of Donald Trump’s failed and toxic policies,” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who will likely become the first Black speaker of the House, said last week while campaigning in Texas.

As for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), he has signaled interest in remaining House Republicans’ leader in the minority, but he could face competition for the job from Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Steve Scalise (R-La.). The House will elect its speaker and minority leader at the beginning of January.

Aside from vigorous oversight of the Trump administration, Democratic control of the House will put an end to partisan lawmaking by Republicans, who used their majorities in both chambers of Congress last year to enact a continuation of sweeping tax cuts partially financed by cuts to federal food and health programs. It’s unlikely Democrats will reverse those cuts, however, and it’s not clear what policymakers can accomplish with control of the federal government divided between the parties.

Jeffries could also face some challenges leading a larger, more ideologically diverse caucus, with a new crop of avowed socialists, already nicknamed “The Bloc,” set for a showdown with moderate Democrats over U.S. support for Israel.

With another two years of Trump as president, Democrats will not fully control the legislative process, so anything that gets done, by definition, will have to be bipartisan. During his campaign stop for Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas), Jeffries suggested immigration reform could be an area of bipartisan lawmaking.

“As House Democrats, we’re committed to getting the situation turned around. We know we have a broken immigration system. We know it needs to be fixed in a comprehensive and bipartisan way,” Jeffries said.

During his first term, Trump struck a surprising deal with a group of Senate Democrats and Republicans for “comprehensive immigration reform” in 2018, then quickly backed out. It was part of a pattern: Trump also killed a bipartisan immigration deal in 2024 as discontent with record border crossings fueled his reelection campaign.

Congress will face some immediate tasks, such as funding the government beyond December, potentially passing a widely supported Senate permitting reform bill, and addressing economic uncertainty and dangers posed by artificial intelligence.