The 2024 elections delivered a harsh blow to Democrats, as they faced three major defeats: Vice President Kamala Harris narrowly lost the presidency to Donald Trump, Republicans reclaimed the U.S. Senate, and the GOP held onto their slim majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. With a 6-3 conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court, Democrats are bracing for a challenging political landscape during Trump’s upcoming second term.
Republicans are celebrating this outcome as a “trifecta,” but despite their victories, governing won’t be easy. As ABC News reporters Benjamin Siegel and Tal Axelrod detailed in a November 27 article, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) is facing significant challenges managing a razor-thin majority.
“President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office in January with a razor-thin GOP majority in the House of Representatives that offers Republicans barely any margin of error,” Siegel and Axelrod report. They note that recent vote tallies in California have slightly tightened the GOP’s grip on the House. Democrat Adam Gray now holds a slim 182-vote lead over Republican Rep. John Duarte in California’s 13th Congressional District, while Democrat Derek Tran leads by about 600 votes against Rep. Michelle Steel in the 45th District.
In Iowa, GOP Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks is clinging to an 800-vote lead in the 2nd Congressional District, a seat she won by just six votes in 2020. If these results stand, the GOP will begin the next Congress with a narrow 220-215 majority.
However, this majority could shrink further. The House is set to lose members to Trump’s administration. Former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s resignation has already reduced Republican numbers and the planned departures of Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) for roles in Trump’s administration could bring the GOP majority down to just 217.
Speaker Johnson has expressed his frustration at the precarious situation, urging Trump to reconsider tapping House members for administration roles. “We have an embarrassment of riches in the House Republican Congress — lots of talented people who are very attuned to the America First agenda — and they can serve the country well in other capacities.
But I’ve told President Trump: Enough already, give me some relief,” Johnson told Fox News. With such slim margins, Johnson faces the daunting task of holding his caucus together while navigating Trump’s priorities and internal party divisions.