The GOP is picking up several key House seats, while Democrats insist they still have a path to a majority

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican leaders expected Thursday that they will maintain confidence control of the US House as several races were decided in their favor, while Democrats insisted they still see a path to the majority and sought guarantees every vote will be counted.

The GOP picked up two more hard-fought places in Pennsylvaniawhich became a strong battleground for Democratic losses up and down the ticket. The Democrats intervened another victory in New Yorkdefeating a third Republican incumbent in that state.

Both parties in the House of Representatives huddled together on conference calls to assess the political landscape as Congress prepared to return next week to a changed Washingtonwhere a wealth of MAGA-infused GOP power is within reach of the president-elect Donald Trump.

“The latest data indicates that we will also have – and likely grow – our Republican majority in the House,” Speaker Mike Johnson said in a letter to colleagues seeking their support to keep the hammer.

But Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries said “it has not yet been decided” which party will control the House, as several key races remained uncalled.

Seeing their options narrow, Democrats focused on flipping a handful of seats in Arizona, California and possibly Oregon to close the gap.

“We have to make every vote count,” Jeffries said.

A final tally in the House will almost certainly have to wait until next week, at the earliest, when Congress is back in session and preparing to elect its new leaders, including nominees for speaker of the House and the senator to replace the outgoing GOP Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

The election results were beyond what Republicans themselves had hoped for, including a majority in the Senate, where two races were still undecided – in Arizona between Democrat Ruben Gallego and Republican Kari Lake and in Nevada between Democratic Senator Jacky Rosen and Republican Sam Brown.

The Associated Press called several races Thursday. In Pennsylvania, Republican Ryan Mackenzie defeated incumbent Democratic Rep. Susan Wild in the Allentown-area district, and Republican Robert Bresnahan ousted Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright in the northeastern part of the state.

The Pennsylvania Senate race between Sen. Bob Casey and wealthy businessman Dave McCormick was decided in McCormick’s favor, giving Republicans 53rd place in the chamber.

Democrats squared off in New York, where Laura Gillen beat incumbent GOP Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, the third flip for Democrats in Jeffries’ home state.

Attention was increasingly focused on the West, where Democrats were eyeing what was left of their path to the majority.

Democrats would have to sweep the most contested races, including two in Arizona and several in California, to win power. But numbers are expected to drag out as California, in particular, counts mail-in ballots that arrive in the week after the election.

Republican Representative Richard Hudson, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told lawmakers during a private call that he is confident the Republican administration will have the majority in the House, according to a Republican familiar with the call but spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details.

Trump is consolidating power in Washington and returning to the White House a far more dominant force than in his first term, when Republicans were divided over their support for him and some were openly skeptical of, if not against, his rise.

This time, Johnson and Senate GOP leaders have drawn closer to Trumpwho rely on his power for their own as they pursue a common Republican agenda more aligned with his “Make America Great Again” priorities.

In his letter to his colleagues, Johnson used a football metaphor to say he is “ready to take the field with all of you” to play “the greatest offense of our lives.”

While Johnson is in line to remain House speaker in the new Congress if Republicans retain control, the question of to replace McConnellwho led his party in flipping control of the Senate is its own intense competition.

The choices Republican senators face for a new leader are between “Johns” — the No. 2 Republican senator. John Thune and Texas Sen. John Cornyn — and a longshot, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who is favored by hard-right Senate conservatives who want Trump to weigh in on the race.

Cornyn and Thune, who both campaigned for Trump, are building support among senators in what is expected to be a close race for private ballots.

Thune has been working to repair a rocky relationship with Trump, and the two spoke as recently as Wednesday, according to another Republican familiar with the private conversation, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss it.

The South Dakota senator had been critical of Trump in the wake of the 2020 election for making allegations of fraudulent voting ahead of the election. January 6, 2021, Capitol attack. Thune and Trump have been in contact all year, the person said.

Thune has suggested that it might be best if Trump stayed out of the leadership race.

“It’s his prerogative to weigh in,” Thune said on Fox News. “Honestly, I think if he lets it play out, we’ll get the right person. I’ve had conversations with him and told him we’d like to get his team in place so he can hit the ground running and come embarking on an agenda to ensure that he and our team succeed.”

Republicans are eyeing swift action in line with Trump’s day one prioritieswhich revolve around cutting taxes, deporting immigrants who are in the country without a particular legal status, and reducing federal regulations and operations.

But after the chaos of the past two years of GOP control of the House, it’s unclear how much Republicans will be able to accomplish, especially if they have another razor-thin majority with few seats left for dissent, in the face of opposition from democrats.

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Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Stephen Groves, Farnoush Amiri and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.