Fractured House Republicans could lose their already slim majority to one seat next year as untimely resignations and scandals take a toll on them, members of Congress say.
The current majority — already one of the tightest in House history — began to shrink after Rep. George Santos was fired earlier this month.
A special election for his Long Island seat is set for February 1.
The resignation of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who is expected to leave at the end of the year, and Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio), who is expected to run for the presidency of Youngstown State University in March, will further reduce the Republican position.
“Death is going to be a big deal for us now,” joked a Republican House staffer.
The final two seats are expected to remain in Republican hands, but a special election to fill them could leave vacancies for months.
George Santos is among the few Republicans who left public service early. Bloomberg via Getty Images
The final tally could reach 219 Republicans to 214 Democrats over several weeks or even months next year.
“I think about it every day,” Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-New Jersey) told The Post about the dangerous math. “The way I add up the numbers, we can get down to a majority of one.”
The party’s top priorities — the Oversight Committee investigation into the Biden family and the House impeachment inquiry into President Biden — are both likely if the Dems control the chamber.
“[Democrats] is dangerous,” said Van Drew. “We are the wall.”
Rep. Ohio, Bill Johnson is leaving the House to take a position as president of Youngstown State University. CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images House Democrats are licking their chops amid GOP chaos, according to reports. AP
A House GOP number cruncher and a person close to the National Republican Congressional Committee, insists the party will retain its worst two-vote majority.
They also stated Rep. Brian Higgins, a Democrat from Buffalo, will resign from Congress in February, creating some additional breathing room.
There is no mechanism for breaking ties in the House, so bills with a tie vote will be considered defeated.
A reduced House majority will further reduce Speaker Mike Johnson’s ability to rein in his notoriously ungovernable colleagues for the upcoming spending and funding fight.
Members of the House Freedom Caucus, which recently fired its predecessor, are already complaining that Johnson allowed “woke” dogma into the recent National Defense Authorization Act, according to an internal memo, Axios reported.
Democrats couldn’t be happier with the GOP’s disruption in the House — and many are licking their chops at the prospect of their leader, Brooklyn Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, becoming Speaker himself before the 2024 election.
“Slowly but surely, House Republicans are mismanaging their own majority out of existence,” Rep. Ritchie Torres. Bronx Democrats are happy.
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
