Republicans edge closer to winning control of both chambers of Congress

Geoff Bennett:

So how much congressional support will Mr. Trump have to implement his agenda? That remains to be seen with more than a dozen congressional races yet to be called.

Republicans hoping to maintain their majority in the House, and if they do, it would lead to Republicans holding a political trifecta over Washington.

Our Lisa Desjardins has been following the latest and joins us now from our PBS News super screen.

All right, Lisa, so where do things stand in the race to control the House of Representatives?

Lisa Desjardins:

We have had more races called over the weekend.

Right now, as it stands, according to the Associated Press, Republicans have 214 seats they have won in the House. As many of our viewers know, that means they need four more in order to clinch control, keep control. How many races are left? There are 17 races left to be called around the country at this hour.

They're all over the place. There's a couple that are going to overtime, Maine and Alaska. Those are ranked-choice elections, where we're going to go into the next phase of that. There's a couple that are getting official review, potentially recounts possible in Ohio and Iowa. But the largest number still, looking at you, California, 10 races left in the Golden State.

And that will decide who wins and also the margin. So let's take a look at some of those. Here's a Republican race critical for Republican control. David Valadao, incumbent here, in House district 22. That's up here, sort of in the center of California. Right now, he's out ahead of Rudy Salas, looking good. Republicans like that.

Not as good news for Republicans, better news for Democrats in District 27. That is Northern Los Angeles County, right around there. George Whitesides, former chief of staff at NASA, is now leading. He pulled ahead over the weekend. This could go back and forth, but Democrats think they're going to hold on to this lead.

Geoff Bennett:

And, Lisa, you have been looking at the data surrounding the House results. What do you see when you look more deeply?

Lisa Desjardins:

Yes, there is something historic that happened in this election. Took my spreadsheet, looked at all of the competitive races that had incumbents in them. These are the ones that have been called by the Associated Press.

You look at all of these dots representing Democrat incumbents, Republican incumbents. Of all of these, only five of these incumbents lost their races. The rest of them were winning incumbents. It's a 98.5 percent win rate for incumbents, according to Open Secrets.

That is a modern record. This is one reason Democrats have had trouble. Incumbents have just had incredible staying power. So right now, Republicans essentially are up one. Democrats really have a lot of catching up to do if they're going to get — they need to swing five more seats in order to get control. Republicans feeling good.

Geoff Bennett:

All right, let's shift our focus to the Upper Chamber. We know Republicans will control the Senate. The question now is by how much.

Lisa Desjardins:

Right. Let's look at it.

OK, here we are. The Senate, according to the Associated Press, to their calls, 53 Republican seats right now in their hands. The remaining decision is in Arizona, and we are waiting to see what happens there. So, this week, Republicans will vote on their majority leader replacing Mitch McConnell. That happens Wednesday. To win that, you need a majority of the sitting Republicans, more than half.

Who's in that race? John Cornyn of Texas, John Thune of South Dakota, both have served as the number two Republican in the past. But a lot of conversation about Rick Scott of Florida, who has entered the race, saying he represents the MAGA wing of the party. And some from that MAGA wing have been endorsing Rick Scott in the last couple of days, Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson, podcaster Charlie Kirk, RFK Jr. and Vivek Ramaswamy.

Now, talking to my sources, however, this is a secret ballot vote, Geoff. And everyone can say what they want about Rick Scott in public. Behind the scenes, I hear more senators inclined not to vote for him at this moment, but he's really making a run of it.

Geoff Bennett:

It's an interesting point because the Senate has typically been insulated from outside pressure. That has to do partly with the way the founders designed it. I mean, does that still hold true in this Trump era?

Lisa Desjardins:

We have seen Donald Trump clearly wants to push control of the Senate right now. He sent out this post on X just over this weekend, saying that he is expecting any Republican senator who wants to have the leadership position must agree to recess appointments.

What does that mean? Recess appointments is a way that you get around Senate confirmation. And you have to have both chambers in order to do it. A reminder, the president appoints more than 1,200 total positions. And high-level nominees usually face hearings in scrutiny, but a recess appointment would get around that.

So this is also a decision that Republican senators will have to make. Trump wants them to give him sort of carte blanche on his appointments.

Geoff Bennett:

Lisa Desjardins, thanks to you, as always.

Lisa Desjardins:

You're welcome.