Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Democrats Retake the House of Representatives

Democrats Retake the House of Representatives
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) (C) is joined by Democratic members of the House of Representatives in the Rayburn Room in the U.S. Capitol September 26, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The House goes from red to blue.

With results still coming in, newsmedia projected the Democratic Party fulfilled their goal of flipping the United States House of Representatives from red to blue.

And at almost 3:00am EST Wednesday morning, it became official when Democrats were declared the winners in 218 House seats. The 116th Congress will convene in January 2019 with Democrats in control of the House.


The House flipped from blue to red in the 2012 presidential election year. The 114th and 115th Congress saw Republicans controlling both houses after successfully taking control of the Senate from the Democrats during the 2014 midterm election.

MSNBC first projected a Democratic flip of the House with CNN, NBC and The New York Times following soon after.

Democrat Jennifer Wexton of Virginia beat incumbent Republican Barbara Comstock of Virginia to flip the first seat in the House.

She was soon followed by Democrat Donna Shalala winning the seat of retiring Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in Florida.

Other notable Democratic wins included Sharice Davids of Kansas and Deb Haaland of New Mexico who will became the first Native American women to ever serve in Congress. Ayanna Pressley became the first Black woman to represent Massachusetts in Congress.

Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota become the first Muslim women to win seats in Congress as well.

And New York Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez becomes the youngest woman ever elected to Congress.

New Democratic Representatives begin their terms in January. Several notable GOP incumbents failed to win their reelection bids.

Democrats flipped seats in Florida, New York, Kansas, Iowa, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Arizona, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Texas. The GOP flipped two seats, one in Pennsylvania and one in Minnesota.

In Maine's 2nd Congressional district, the state's new ranked choice voting came into play as neither of the two frontrunners, incumbent Republican Bruce Poliquin nor Democratic challenger Jared Golden managed to garner over 50 percent of voter support.

Maine became the first state in the nation to begin using ranked choice voting which allows voters to rank all candidates in order of their preference on the ballot, making a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc... choice. Those rankings are used to decide the winner if no candidate receives over 50 percent of the initial tally. Once all precincts are at 100 percent reported, the instant runoff process begins using voters ranked choices.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi predicted a Democratic win, but people had doubts.

People blamed outgoing Speaker of the House Paul Ryan—who retired rather than run for reelection.

While the President referred to the night as a success despite losses in the House and in Governor's races.

Plenty of people celebrated online.

Many also projected what a blue House of Representatives would mean for the Trump administration.

Winning candidates took to Twitter to thank their supporters and congratulate each other.

By the next afternoon, Democrats flipped 29 seats with 222 House seats designated as won by a Democrat. Over a dozen seats still had no declared winner by late Wednesday afternoon.

More from News/2024-election

Protestors hold signs during a political demonstration
Mike Newbry on Unsplash

People Who Escaped Authoritarian Governments Share How They Knew It Was Time To Go

A recent marked rise in fascist movements and authoritarian governments has been on a lot of people's minds lately. But such regimes came and went throughout our human history.

To paraphrase a common saying, those who don't learn history are doomed to repeat it.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of Mike Johnson
C-SPAN

Dems LOL After Mike Johnson Heaps Outrageous Praise On Trump Following Budget Bill Passage

Democrats laughed openly after House Speaker Mike Johnson heaped praise on President Donald Trump after the "Big Beautiful Bill"—packed full of GOP priorities—passed the House of Representatives.

The bill narrowly passed the House in a 215–214 vote early in the morning, following days of marathon meetings, high-stakes negotiations stretching across Pennsylvania Avenue, and a flurry of last-minute revisions that proved essential in uniting Republicans behind the legislation.

Keep ReadingShow less
SZA
Chris Haston/WBTV via Getty Images

SZA Reveals She Had To Bribe A 'Child' Into Throwing Away His 'Whippet Drugs'

Singer SZA has sparked a conversation around drugs being marketed to kids after she revealed in an Instagram story that she got a "child" to throw away his can of whippets by offering to take a photo or video with him.

She shared a photo alongside the post, showing a brightly colored canister of Galaxy Gas—commonly known as laughing gas—labeled with a strawberry-banana flavor and packaged as a whipped cream charger.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @atrustedadult2.0's TikTok video
@atrustedadult2.0/TikTok

Mom Stunned After Job Refuses To Let Her Call Out Of Work To Take Care Of Her Sick Kids

We can all agree that when we take on a role in a workplace, we should be expected to perform our duties, show up on time, not abuse the time off policy, and generally make good contributions as a member of that company. Those are all reasonable things to expect of an employee who is being paid.

But we are all human, and sometimes things come up that are out of our control.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @rtbjj19's TikTok video
@rtbjj19/TikTok

Student Calls Out School For Using ChatGPT To Pen Parts Of Their Yearbook In Viral TikTok

Anyone who participated in the school yearbook class while they were in high school can attest to the hard work and attention to detail that goes into creating the annual yearbook.

From curating photos, documenting important events from the year, interviewing students and teachers, and creating other highlights, the yearbook is meant to be a special memento for students when they graduate.

Keep ReadingShow less