House Republicans Are in Danger of Chaos as Last Race Called

Democratic candidate Adam Gray defeated incumbent Republican Representative John Duarte in the final 2024 House race to be called. Gray’s victory, flipping California’s 13th congressional district, means the House Republican majority will be even more razor-thin than before.

With Gray’s win, called early Wednesday morning by the Associated Press, House Republicans will have just a 220–215 majority in the 119th Congress, as the Democrats have netted one more House seat. As CNN reporter Harry Enten noted last week while results were still pending, a party’s majority in the House has not been this slim since the Herbert Hoover administration, following elections for the 72nd Congress.

The House Republican majority is poised to be further deflated, temporarily, to 217–215 in early 2025 with the expected vacancies of three Republican seats.

Representative Matt Gaetz resigned from his seat last month, after he was tapped to be Trump’s attorney general but before he withdrew from consideration in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations. Two other Republican representatives, Elise Stefanik and Mike Waltz, are expected to resign to join the Trump administration. Until these three vacancies are filled, a single Republican defector in a party-line vote would dash a piece of legislation.

The scantiness of the House majority—on top of internal strife among Republican representatives—could significantly hamper the party’s ability to enact its legislative agenda early on in the coming Trump administration.