Democrats got some great news on Tuesday night, when their candidate took the lead in California’s 13th District, a seat Republicans currently hold.
As of Wednesday morning, Democrat Adam Gray now leads Republican incumbent John Duarte by 182 votes.
If the lead holds—and if they pick up the other uncalled seat where they currently lead—it would give Democrats 215 House seats, a net gain from the previous Congress. And it would make House Speaker Mike Johnson's life even more miserable than it already was slated to be, since he'd have one fewer vote to try to pass Donald Trump's destructive agenda.
For at least the first few months of the new Congress, Republicans would have just a 217-215 majority if they win the uncalled seat where they currently lead. That’s because Trump nominated Reps. Elise Stefanik of New York and Mike Waltz of Florida to his administration. Now-former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz—who resigned to try to bury what is believed to be a damning House Ethics Committee investigation into whether he sex-trafficked a minor in order to try to save his now-defunct quest to be attorney general—will also not be taking his seat in the 119th Congress.
That means Johnson would need to have every single Republican vote to pass bills, with just one defection or absence causing a vote to fail. That will be an extremely difficult task for Johnson, who presides over a fractious conference filled with right-wing lunatics who vote “no” on even must-pass government funding legislation over their demand for ideological purity.
