Democrats head toward House control, but lose incumbents to GOP

WASHINGTON: Democrats drove toward extending their control of the United States House of Representatives for two more years on Wednesday (Nov 4), but with a potentially shrunken majority as they lost at least six incumbents and failed to oust any Republican lawmakers in initial returns.

By 3am EST (4pm Singapore time), Democrats' only gains were two North Carolina seats vacated by GOP incumbents after a court-ordered remapping made the districts more Democratic.

Though they seemed likely to retain House control, the results were developing into a disappointment for the party, which hoped to make modest gains of perhaps 15 seats.

After decades of trying, Republicans defeated 15-term Congressman Collin Peterson from a rural Minnesota district that backed President Donald Trump in 2016 by 31 percentage points, Trump's biggest margin in any Democratic-held district.

Peterson, who chairs the House Agriculture Committee, opposed Trump's impeachment and is one of the House's most conservative Democrats.

He was defeated by Republican Michelle Fischbach, the former lieutenant governor.

Freshmen Democrats Debbie Mucarsel-Powell and Donna Shalala lost, falling in adjacent South Florida districts in a state where Trump seemed to consolidate his support among Cuban voters

Also losing were Democratic freshmen Joe Cunningham of South Carolina, Xochitl Torres Small of New Mexico and Kendra Horn in Oklahoma, who had surprising victories in 2018 in districts Trump carried decisively in 2016.

The fight for Torres Small's seat cost around US$35 million, making it one of the country's most expensive races, according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics.

She was defeated by Yvette Herrell, a former state legislator.

Democrats were also disappointed in the Senate, where they nursed fading hopes of winning the majority.

Trump's challenge from Democrat Joe Biden remained too close to call.

ADVANTAGES NOT ENOUGH

Before votes were counted, both parties’ operatives said the GOP would be fortunate to limit Democratic gains to a modest single digits.

Democrats control the House with 232 seats to 197, with five open seats and one independent.

It takes 218 seats to control the chamber.

A smaller Democratic majority would make it tougher for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to unite her lawmakers as a handful of progressive freshmen arrive for the new Congress.

By retaining House control, Democrats would mark only the second time in a quarter of a century that they've led the chamber for two consecutive two-year Congresses.

The first period ran from 2007 through 2010, when Pelosi was serving her first four years in her post.

“Our purpose in this race was to win so that we could protect the Affordable Care Act and so that we could crush the virus,” Pelosi told reporters, citing former President Barack Obama’s healthcare act.

She declared that Democrats had won the House majority, which seemed highly likely but hadn’t been officially declared by the Associated Press.

READ: With results from key states unclear, Trump declares victory

READ: 'It ain't over until every vote is counted': Biden addresses supporters

Democrats’ hopes of protecting their majority and even expanding it were based on public anxiety over the pandemic, Trump’s alienation of suburban voters and a vast fundraising edge, but those advantages didn't carry them as far as they'd hoped.

With GOP expectations for capturing the House all but nonexistent entering Election Day, Republicans were happy with the results.

“House Republicans have outperformed all expectations," said Dan Conston, who heads the Congressional Leadership Fund, a committee aligned with House GOP leaders that provides millions to Republican candidates.

TOSS-UPS LOST

Democrats lost a series of what were viewed as coin-flip races, failing to defeat GOP incumbents in Cincinnati, rural Illinois, central Virginia and the suburbs of St Louis, as well as in two contests in Texas.

In a district between Austin and San Antonio, freshman GOP Rep Chip Roy withstood a challenge from Democrat Wendy Davis.

Davis gained fame as a state legislator by waging a 2013 filibuster against an anti-abortion bill, then lost a race for governor the following year.

The conservative Club for Growth made her its biggest target, spending over US$6 million against her this year.

As if symbolically, Illinois Rep Cheri Bustos, who leads the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, was in her own tight race in a closely divided district she won by 24 percentage points in 2018.

READ: Senate Republicans and Democrats trade losses as battle for Senate rages

READ: Commentary: A bitter US election that resolves little

Some endangered Democrats like Texas' Lizzie Fletcher and New Jersey's Tom Malinowski and Andy Kim held on, but the party notched no initial victories in long-shot races that they'd hoped would bolster their majority.

Republicans retained such districts in central North Carolina; Montana; Omaha, Nebraska; and around Little Rock, Arkansas.

As Wednesday morning progressed, other hotly fought races remained undecided in states including Georgia and Virginia.

WINS FOR PROGRESSIVES, QANON SUPPORTER

Scores of both parties’ incumbents from safe districts were easily re-elected.

These included progressive star Democratic Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York City and both parties’ number three House leader - Democrat James Clyburn of South Carolina and Republican Liz Cheney of Wyoming.

Also coming to Washington will be New York City area Democrats Jamaal Bowman, a progressive who was backed by Ocasio-Cortez, and Ritchie Torres, who will be Congress' first openly gay Hispanic.

In one noteworthy but unsurprising result, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has espoused unfounded QAnon conspiracy theories, won a vacant seat in northwest Georgia.

Trump has called Greene a “future Republican star”.

QAnon asserts that Trump is quietly waging a battle against pedophiles in government.

FOCUS ON HEALTHCARE

Hanging over the contests were the coronavirus pandemic and the wounded economy, which voters ranked as top concerns, according to AP VoteCast, a national survey of more than 127,000 voters and non-voters conducted for the Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago.

The virus has killed 232,000 people in the United States and cases are rising in nearly every state, while millions have lost jobs.

Buoying Democrats was a coast-to-coast edge in campaign fundraising, including for all 29 Democrats from districts Trump won in 2016 and Republicans were targeting.

By early Wednesday, Peterson, Cunningham and Torres Small were the only ones of those Democrats who'd lost.

Nearly all Democratic incumbents in potentially vulnerable districts were outspending their GOP challengers, often by vast margins, according to an AP analysis of Federal Election Commission campaign reports.

As in 2018, when they grabbed House control, Democratic ads emphasised pledges to make health care more accessible, preserve coverage for pre-existing conditions and shield voters from Republicans out to terminate those requirements.

Many Republicans say they want to dismantle Obama’s healthcare law while retaining its coverage for pre-existing conditions, but they’ve not presented a detailed proposal for doing that.

The pandemic has only amplified Democrats’ focus on healthcare.

Trump’s repeated false statements downplaying the virus’ severity have also given Democrats political fodder.