The GOP must win 218 seats to capture the majority in the House. 217 races have been officially called for the GOP and 203 for the Democrats, according to Decision Desk HQ. So, here’s the math, according to DDHQ: there are 15 House races yet to be called, and the GOP only needs one to secure the majority officially.
While the elections didn’t go as well as we’d hoped, it’s quite clear that the GOP is on the verge of winning the majority in the House. Even NBC News projects that the GOP will win 220 seats — up from 219 days ago. Despite this, no one has officially called the House majority for the GOP yet, and I suspect it will probably be a while before it happens. DDHQ predicted earlier this week that the GOP could still win as many as 221 seats. That said, looking at the outstanding races yet to be called, despite the advantage the GOP has, many races are either nearly finished counting but really close or still show too many outstanding votes for a legitimate call to be made — which is an embarrassment.
Still, statistically speaking, it is highly improbable that the GOP won’t win one more of the 15 outstanding races. So, where I sit, it is clear the GOP will have the House majority — it’s just a question of how big (or, more accurately, how small) that majority will be.
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