Democrats win control of the House of Representatives

Democrats won control of the House of Representatives with what could be its largest majority in nearly two decades, NBC News projects, as voters delivered a stunning rebuke to President Donald Trump and Republicans. The House projection is based on an analysis that Democrats will win approximately 244 House seats — an estimate that could still tick up or down by a few seats but will be well beyond the 218 needed to secure a majority. NBC News has not yet projected who will win the Senate. The Democrats’ victory was widely seen as a referendum on Trump’s unpopular policies, including his tough immigration crackdown, the eight-month Iran war and tariffs on U.S. allies that drove up the price of gas, groceries and other goods. When the party takes control of the chamber on Jan. 3, it will mark the first time in Trump’s second term that he won’t have full control of Congress. Since returning to the White House, Trump has tested the limits of his executive powers, dismantling federal agencies through DOGE cuts, unilaterally imposing sweeping tariffs and nixing congressionally approved funding — all while a GOP-controlled House and Senate mostly looked the other way. Follow live updates on the midterm elections The Democratic leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, who barnstormed across the country in the final weeks of the campaign, is expected to make history on Jan. 3 when he is sworn in as the first Black speaker of the House. With their new majority, Democrats will take control of House committees, bestowing subpoena power and the ability to conduct oversight investigations into Trump’s administration, family and business ventures. This could take up considerable time and resources for Trump and his allies, forcing uncomfortable public hearings or prompting legal showdowns over subpoenas. And in a callback to Trump’s first term, some Democrats have vowed to impeach the president for a third time, though there is an internal debate about whether that’s the right political path. Jeffries told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that Democrats “haven’t ruled anything in and we haven’t ruled anything out” on impeachment. Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., now poised to become chairman of the powerful House Oversight Committee in January, said his panel plans to focus on “Trump family corruption,” including the president’s cryptocurrency ventures that have earned him more than $1 billion. The panel will also scrutinize “abuses” by ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, corporate corruption and the Jeffrey Epstein files. Aside from investigative power, House Democrats will also command the ability to pass legislation with a simple majority. Jeffries has said that Democrats would focus on four areas: reverse Trump’s cuts to Medicaid, extend the Affordable Care Act credits, restore congressional authority related to tariffs, and stop Trump’s war with Iran. “I wouldn’t characterize it as investigating them like crazy. We’re going to follow the facts, apply the law, be guided by the Constitution, and let the chips fall where they may,” Jeffries told reporters at Democrats’ campaign headquarters before the election. The results are a blow to Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who was launched from obscurity into the top job and has led House Republicans for the past three years. It’s unclear if Johnson, a close Trump ally, will fight to remain as minority leader or step aside; the latter would trigger a fiercely competitive GOP race to replace him. House Democrats had the political wind at their backs; they needed to flip a net of just three seats to win back the majority they lost in 2022. And Trump’s dismal approval rating was a major factor in the GOP’s loss. Historically, the president’s party tends to lose seats in midterm elections. Only in two midterms in the modern era did a party buck that trend — in 1998, when voters punished Republicans for impeaching President Bill Clinton, and in 2002, as President George W. Bush rallied support in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Still, the battle for House control played out primarily on GOP turf this cycle, with Democrats already holding 215 seats, including a dozen in battleground districts. On top of that, results of this cycle’s mid-decade redistricting wars ended up favoring Republicans slightly, though Democrats quickly moved to neutralize what could have been a large GOP advantage. Trump fired the first shot in the summer of 2025, when he urged GOP allies in Texas to redraw their congressional lines to help the party pick up as many as five seats. Republicans also redrew maps in places like Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana and Missouri in a bid to win more seats. But Democrats countered in California, with Gov. Gavin Newsom, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and their allies successfully rallying support for Proposition 50, which approved a new congressional map drawn by state Democrats. That map helped Democrats pick up GOP-held seats. While the GOP successfully picked up a handful of majority-Black, Democratic-held seats in the South, the Supreme Court blocked Missouri Republicans’ new congressional map, essentially preserving the Kansas City seat of longtime Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo. “We made a promise to aggressively push back against the MAGA extremist effort to rip the election away from the American people by gerrymandering the possibility of Democrats winning the majority out of existence,” Jeffries said before the election, adding that the redistricting wars will continue in the 120th Congress. “This fight is not over; we’ve just gotten started,” he added. “It will continue into the next Congress until we pass legislation signed into law by a future president that will prohibit mid-decade gerrymandering from ever happening again.”