JUST IN: Republicans Win Crucial House Seat

U.S. House Republicans inched closer to a majority on Wednesday, picking up a contested California seat where a GOP incumbent clung to a fragile lead for the past two days.

Congresswoman Young Kim (R-CA), now elected to her second two-year term, fended off a challenge from Democrat Joe Kerr, a former firefighter who ran with the backing of powerful labor unions across the state. With 68% of votes tallied so far, NBC News has called the race for Kim and her 56.5% of the vote to Kerr’s 43.4% margin. Although slim, Kim’s lead grew from 2022 when she prevailed on election night by just 1,000 votes. Her win represents a rebuke of California Democrats’ attempt to oust the South Korea-born lawmaker.

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Redistricting following the 2020 census led Kim, 62, to seek California’s 40th District after previously representing its 39th. Resting just outside Anaheim and firmly ensconced in the state’s blue coast, her constituents delivered President Joe Biden a 10-point margin of victory in 2020 though have voted for Republican gubernatorial candidates in recent years. At the federal level, voters warmed to Rep. Kim after some formidable fundraising and a moderate message, including her acceptance of the 2020 election results. She is just one of three Republican lawmakers to defeated a sitting California Democratic congressperson since 1994.

Her reelection puts House Republicans tantalizingly close to a majority, building on gains made by wresting four seats away from Democratic incumbents. If secured, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) would instantly become one of the most influential Republicans in Washington, setting the House’s agenda and giving the GOP an unbridled path to passing legislative priorities that include repealing the Affordable Care Act, strengthening citizenship requirements for voting, and ending funding for the war in Ukraine. Senate Republicans took control of the upper chamber on election night after flipping seats in West Virginia and Ohio, a majority that was padded with another flip in Montana Wednesday. On Thursday Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) prevailed over GOP challenger Eric Hovde while Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) defeated former Rep. Mike Rogers for Michigan’s open Senate seat.

Prior to Tuesday’s election, Johnson stated publicly that President-elect Donald Trump has promised to back his bid for another shot at the gavel as he fights to keep the feisty House GOP caucus in line. After Trump’s election, the Louisiana lawmaker revealed his political operation had worked for more than a year to deliver Tuesday’s wins. “We’ve been working for a year … preparing this playbook that we’ll talk about all the time for the next Congress,” he said, laying out a “keep your quarterback” message that has become easier after flipping several contested seats. “So if we’re going to … run those plays and execute them with precision, you got to keep the quarterback on the field and keep the same team,” he told Axios.

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