Just over a week after the midterm elections, Republicans finally secured the 218 seats required to enjoy a majority in the US House of Representatives. The Conservative Party will now be able to block Joe Biden’s policies and lead parliamentary commissions of inquiry for at least the next two years.
As of this writing, 7 of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives still had no winners. The Republicans maintained a lead for 3 of those seats, meaning the Democrats remained ahead for the other 4.
This is Mike Garcia, the elected representative of the House of Representatives for the 27e district of California, located north of Los Angeles, which became the 218e Republican of the Lower House of Congress, which formalized the victory of his party, anticipated for several days.
Before election day, which took place on November 8, however, the polls predicted results much more favorable to the Republicans. A study by the Pew Research Center published on November 2 also showed that the economy, an issue widely claimed by Republicans as their priority, remained the main electoral concern of Americans. The famous “red wave” predicted by the polls has therefore never materialized.
Moreover, if the projections of the American media are confirmed for all the seats, Joe Biden’s performance in the mid-term elections will become the best score by a president in more than 20 years, this election being traditionally unfavorable to the power in place.
Americans “are ready for a new direction,” said Kevin McCarthy on Twitter on Wednesday evening, appointed Tuesday by his fellow Republican party leader in the House of Representatives. He therefore becomes the de facto “majority leader” of the Chamber.
In a statement, Mr. Biden congratulated his opponent, and said that he would “work with anyone – Republican or Democrat – who is willing to work [avec lui] “. The president also said that “last week’s elections demonstrated the strength and resilience of American democracy. There has been massive rejection of those who question the election results, political violence and intimidation”.
Mr. McCarthy must now win a vote in plenary session on January 3, when the 435 newly elected members – Republicans and Democrats – of the House will elect their “ speaker “, the third most important figure in American politics, after the president and the vice-president.
New powers for Republicans
For a piece of legislation to be passed at the federal level, both houses of Congress, the Senate (upper house) and the House of Representatives (lower house), must approve it. Mr. Biden and the Democrats will therefore not be able to advance their big plans for the next two years, but, in all likelihood, neither will the Republicans.
At the controls of the House of Representatives, the Republicans can however launch parliamentary commissions of inquiry as well as stop those already started by the Democrats. One would therefore expect them to end the Democratic inquiry into the January 6 insurrection, but also to launch others, including on the handling of the pandemic under Joe Biden.
The latter will now have to arm himself with his negotiating skills – on which he bet during his election in 2020 – to consolidate support within the Republican camp if he wants to avoid, among other things, a paralysis of the federal administration. (the famous shutdown).
With Agence France-Presse