Midterm Election 2014 Results: GOP Will Retain Control of the House
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Hemera/iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — ABC News projects that Republicans will retain majority control of the House of Representatives. Now, the question becomes how big that majority will grow.
While majority control of the Senate has been the primary point of discussion through the midterm elections, President Obama could face the largest House majority since the Great Depression if Republicans win a net gain of 13 seats in the lower chamber on Tuesday.
House Republicans are all but assured of adding to their current 34-seat majority, possibly diminishing some of the power of a conservative wing of lawmakers who have challenged House Speaker John Boehner’s leadership on issues like health care, immigration reform and government spending.
After voting in West Chester, Ohio, Tuesday morning, Boehner told reporters he feels good about the GOP’s chances to not only add to his majority, but also pick up the Senate majority.
“We’ve listened to the American people,” Boehner said. “We’ve kept our focus on the economy and jobs nonstop. I think the voters in America today are going to send a very clear message to the president and Democrats in Washington that the American people want us to focus on their priorities, not Washington’s priorities.”
Although some conservative candidates have been reluctant to publicly declare whether they would vote to elect Boehner as House speaker, his hold on the leadership post should grow Tuesday after spending the past three months campaigning across the country, winning over the favor of many grateful Republicans.
Even a modest electoral wave Tuesday could hand Republicans their largest House majority in decades. Republicans have set a goal of 245, exceeding the 242 seats they held after the Tea Party wave of 2010. A net gain of 11 seats is an outcome even senior Democratic strategists admit is highly likely.
Republicans in the 80th Congress held 246 seats during President Harry Truman’s administration, but if the GOP can pick up 13 or more seats, President Obama will face the largest class of House Republicans since the 71st Congress was sworn in January 1929, when the GOP had 270 seats, during the Hoover administration.
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