US House races: Democrats retain control while facing upsets in key states
Democrats, who are still expected to retain control of the House of Representatives, have suffered several stinging losses that have knocked down their hopes of significantly expanding their majority in the House of Representatives.In Florida’s Miami-Dade county, Republicans flipped two Democratic seats in an upset, while Democrats took two Republican seats in North Carolina. But chances that Democrats would gain some of the long-shot seats they were vying for in Texas and Arkansas are on track to remain in Republican hands as early results trickle in.In New Mexico, the Republican Yvette Herrell on Tuesday beat incumbent Democrat Xochitl Torres Small – who had won her red district two years ago by just 3,700 votes. And in South Carolina, the Republican Nancy Mace defeated the incumbent Democrat Joe Cunningham.House leader Nancy Pelosi, who handily won re-election in California, was confident ahead of election night. “Tonight, House Democrats are poised to further strengthen our majority – the biggest, most diverse, most dynamic, women-led House majority in history,” she said.And the Cook Political Report, which provides non-partisan election and political analysis, predicted on Monday that Democrats will gain between 10 and 15 seats in the House, which has 435 members. “A combination of President Trump’s unpopularity in the suburbs, a fundraising disadvantage, and 32 open seats for the GOP to defend (to Democrats’ dozen) has weighed down Republicans’ prospects,” said David Wasserman, of Cook Political Report.Democrats now hold 232 seats, while Republicans have 197. There are five vacancies in the House, and one Libertarian-held seat . The GOP would need 218 seats to gain control. Such an upset is exceedingly unlikely.However, Republicans have chipped away at predictions of Democratic sweeps – having unseated Democrats in red or swing districts.Across the country, Republican candidates have been going after freshman Democrats who won in the 2018 midterms. Meanwhile, Democrats were hoping to land key GOP districts, USA Today explained. Texas, which is an overwhelmingly red state, is key to this battle. Congressman Michael McCaul, whose district spans from Houston’s suburbs to Austin, was thought to be dealing with “real risk of defeat” against Democrat Mike Siegel. But the Associated Press declared victory for McCaul on Tuesday night.In Ohio, Democrats believed that a long-held Republican seat representing Cincinnati-area suburbs has become more competitive. But GOP representative Steve Chabot claimed his 13th term, with an almost 8% lead over Democrat Kate Schroder, a healthcare executive. A congressional race near Atlanta, Georgia, however, may test Democrats’ success in courting suburban voters. The district’s Republican representative, Rob Woodall, is retiring. Democrat Carolyn Bourdeaux, who lost to Woodall in 2018, is the 2020 candidate against Republican nominee Rich McCormick. As the district remains conservative, the result will give insight into Democrats’ get-out-the-vote efforts in the state, the Washington Post reported. Bourdeaux was leading by the end of election night by a 1.4% margin. In Florida’s Miami-Dade county, incumbent Debbie Mucarsel-Powell was defeated by Republican Carlos Giménez in the 27th district, and incumbent Donna Shalala of the state’s 26th district lost to Republican Maria Elvira Salazar. Cook Political Report had predicted both seats would remain with Democrats.Giménez, who is the mayor of Miami-Dade, performed a balancing act – welcoming an endorsement from Trump, while gently veering away from the president on public health issues as he led the majority-Black and Latino community he through the coronavirus pandemic. Salazar, formerly a broadcast journalist for Univision, Telemundo and CNN Español, won this year after losing to Shalala in 2018. As a daughter of Cuban refugees, Salazar painted her opponents and Democrats as socialists.Another key congressional race was in South Carolina, where Joe Cunningham, who two years ago was the first Democrat to take a House seat from the GOP in the state since 1986, lost his bid for re-election after acontest that became the most expensive US House race in state history. Cunningham’s fundraising totaled $6m, while his Republican opponent, the state representative Nancy Mace, raised more than $4m between the primary and general elections.In a heated race in the New York district covering Staten Island and southern Brooklyn, Max Rose, the Democratic incumbent, lost to Republican state assembly member Nicole Malliotakis.The bitter race has featured weeks of negative attack ads, with Malliotakis insisting she is the law-and-order candidate. This position, of course, is also touted by Trump – who won Staten Island in 2016. Trump is supporting Malliotakis in the race.Results from Indiana’s fifth district, an open-seat race that speaks to both parties’ fight for the suburbs seemed to remain in Republican control. This district, which covers suburban Indianapolis, marked a major victory for Trump in 2016 – with him beating Hillary Clinton by almost 12 points. Virginia’s fifth district had also attracted attention as a potentially watershed toss-up – in the end wasn’t. Democrat Cameron Webb, a Black physician who served in the Obama administration, was defeated by Bob Good. More
