Staff ReportsThe Republican majority in the House has taken another hit this week as Democrats successfully flipped yet another seat, pushing the GOP’s slender margin to the brink of disaster. With every passing day, it seems like the Democrats are playing a cruel game of musical chairs at the expense of the Republican agenda, and they are showing no signs of slowing down. Just when Republicans thought they were running on a mandate from voters to champion a Trump-dominated vision, it turns out that some lawmakers are jumping ship rather than rowing in the same direction.
As the Democrats celebrate their latest victory, with Derek Tran snatching Rep. Michelle Steel’s seat in California’s 45th district, the GOP is faced with a sobering truth. The current count of 220 Republican seats to 214 Democratic seats hardly offers the breathing space that Speaker Mike Johnson so desperately needs. With President-elect Donald Trump swiping members from their already precarious position, the Republican squeeze is tightening, and it looks like they’ll have to work miracles to keep things afloat when the next Congress convenes.
The Democrats are not just stopping at Tran’s victory. There’s still one last undeclared race hanging in the balance, where Rep. John Duarte is trailing in California’s 13th District by a mere 105 votes. Marjorie Taylor Greene is sounding the alarm, accusing the Democrats of stealing yet another seat. It seems almost theatrical—counting ballots for 22 days only to watch the tables turn at the last moment. If Adam Gray’s narrow lead holds, the Democrats would boast a 215-seat presence, leaving the Republicans barely clinging to a threadbare majority.
With Trump now on a mission to appoint his loyalists, the GOP’s numbers are set to dwindle even further before the new Congress can even take its first vote. Former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida is already out, and so are Reps. Mike Waltz and Elise Stefanik. The funny thing is, these departures mean the GOP will head into the new term with only 217 seats—a margin so thin that it would make a dime look fat. With special elections scheduled for April, the House Republicans are already facing a daunting uphill battle in Trump’s first 100 days, with an even slimmer bench to work with.
House GOP margins shrink even more, teeing up paper-thin majority for start of Trump administrationhttps://t.co/HwjZXyIMM7 pic.twitter.com/YwUnZPVOnK
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) November 29, 2024
Speaker Johnson is acutely aware of the precarious situation. The math is abundantly clear: with just a couple of absentees or a single rebel vote within the ranks, the GOP could see key pieces of Trump’s agenda—like the extension of the much-lauded 2017 tax cuts—slip through their fingers like water. As Thanksgiving approached, Johnson candidly acknowledged the stakes, emphasizing that every single vote would matter. If one Republican is stuck in traffic or gets sidelined by a sneeze, there goes a legislative priority right into the abyss.
With every maneuver democrats pull and every seat they flip, it becomes more evident that the GOP’s grip on power is anything but secure. They are left grasping at straws, hoping for a miracle, all while the clock ticks down to what they hoped would be a triumphant return for Trump’s grand agenda. Instead, they might find themselves stuck in a game of catch-up, increasingly frustrated as Democratic gains keep pushing their ambitions further out of reach.
