Live Updates: Gaetz withdraws as Trump’s pick for attorney general

Nick Begich’s flip of Alaska’s lone House seat will fill Republicans’ slim majority in the House — but with several members leaving to join President-elect Donald Trump’s administration and only three races left to be decided, the party could be entering the new years with very little room for error.

The narrow majority could shape a lot on Capitol Hill — from how House Speaker Mike Johnson handles a looming government funding battle and unhappiness from his right flank to who governors are considering appointing to fill Senate vacancies — when the new Congress is sworn in in January 3 and Trump takes office 17 days later.

Two weeks after election day, both parties are closely following a handful of house races where a winner had not yet been found. On Wednesday, winners emerged in two of those races: Begich unseated Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola as Alaska counted its ranked ballots late Wednesday. And hours earlier, the final vote tally in Ohio had padded the Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur’s narrow edge in the Toledo-based 9th District.

Balance of power: Those results mean Republicans have won 219 House seats to Democrats’ 213, according to CNN projections. The undecided races are California’s 13th and 45th districts, where ballots are still being counted, and Iowa’s 1st district, where GOP Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks leads by about 800 votes ahead of a recount.

However, Trump is courting Republicans who hold — or until recently held — three of those seats to join his still-forming administration. The president-elect could pick more GOP House members as he fills out the rest of his cabinet and other administration positions.

So far, he has chosen Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz as Attorney General, Florida Rep. Michael Waltz as his national security adviser and New York Rep. Elise Stefanik as his candidate for US ambassador to the UN. Gaetz immediately resigned his House seat and said he would not take his seat in January. Waltz and Stefanik remain members of the House for the time being.

Their seats, all of which are expected to remain in Republican hands, will be filled via special elections — but when those elections will take place and when the winners will get seats in Congress is not yet clear.

Read more about how the remaining house races can affect The GOP’s narrow majority in the House.