House Republicans will enter the 119th Congress with a razor-thin majority after an election that saw Democrats score a net gain of one seat.
The final race to be decided — nearly one month after Election Day — was in California’s 13th District, where Democrat Adam Gray ousted Republican incumbent John Duarte.
That means Republicans won a total of 220 House seats this year, while Democrats won 215.
House Republicans are expected to start the new Congress on January 3 already down by at least one seat. That’s because their final tally includes the Florida seat won by Republican Matt Gaetz, who resigned from the House in November.
The GOP margins are expected to shrink even further in the session’s early months when another Florida Republican, Rep. Michael Waltz, resigns to serve as Trump’s national security adviser — a White House role that doesn’t require Senate confirmation. Waltz is expected to step down on or around Inauguration Day on Jan. 20.
The timing of outgoing House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik’s departure is slightly less clear, though it’s likely that the New York lawmaker will win fast approval from the Republican-led Senate to become U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in the next administration.
The special elections for Gaetz’s and Waltz’s seats are slated for April 1, according to the Florida secretary of State’s office, with primaries on January 28. And once Stefanik resigns, New York law gives Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul a 10-day window to call the special election, which would need to be set for between 70 and 80 days after that.