Control of House still in question as crucial races remain too close to call

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• Geoff Bennett:

  And for a look now at some of the most crucial races in Congress, we're joined by our Lisa Desjardins at our PBS News super screen for a deeper dive.

  So, Lisa, where do things stand now for control of the House?

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Well, this is the biggest question out there, and I want to remind viewers, the stakes could not be higher here.

  Control of the House will decide whether next President Trump has a more easy path to his agenda or if there is a direct check on his power. Right now, here's where things stand. Republicans have 210 seats, according to the calls made by the Associated Press. That means in order to get the majority, keep the majority, they need to pick up eight seats total right now in the next seats that would be called.

  So take a look at the national map here. There's a lot of seats out there, but here's a way to think of it. There are 27 races still left to be called for party control in the House of Representatives. They're all over the place, big districts like Maine. Here's one in Iowa, Ohio. Alaska, that race hasn't been called yet.

  But the largest groups of races, there's four in Arizona, four in the Pacific Northwest. And how about this? California, 13 House races yet to be called. They will decide the control of the House. And, by the way, look at this, Democrats right now with 198 seats. So for them to take control of the House, they need 20 of the remaining 27 seats that are out there.

  That is a steep climb, and that's why Speaker Mike Johnson wrote his colleagues in the House yesterday saying he expects them to take over the House, though that has not been called yet.

• Geoff Bennett:

  So, Lisa, where would Democrats find those 20 seats?

• Lisa Desjardins:

  All right, let's take a look at what's been going on here. Democrats have had some bright spots. They picked up four seats that are certain flips. These are called races. There's two more that are within reach. So, right now, they have the potential to pick up six flipped seats.

  Alone, that would have been enough to take over control of the House. But look at what Republicans have done. They have picked up more flips, and they also have two within reach right now. So Republicans have picked up or within reach of picking up eight seats. Do the math. It's pretty easy. And right now, the net is an R-plus two, Republicans potentially gaining that much.

  Democrats have other concerns, though as well, because if you look at the closest House races in the country, most of them are held by Democrats. Looking at one of those in Western Maryland let's talk about the Maryland Sixth District here. It's a little bit big.

  But this is the closest race in the country right now. It's about 340 votes separate these two candidates. It's an open seat, Democrats right now ahead. They have good prospects here because some of the more liberal areas of this district have yet to bring in some votes. But the point is, this is a rural area where Democrats used to be comfortable and now they're fighting for their lives.

• Geoff Bennett:

  All right, let's take a look at the Senate. Republicans won control of the Upper Chamber. The question, though, is by how much. What's the deal?

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Right. Here we are, 53 Republicans. There are two Senate seats yet to be decided. Which ones are those? A lot of our folks know where they are. They're out West, Arizona, and Nevada. The reason we're at 53 now is because Pennsylvania has been called for the Republicans.

  Let's look at that quickly and what's going on there. This looks like a very close race, 49-49. So why would the Associated Press already call this if it's so close? Because of this county right here, Cambria County. Right now, they have a huge margin, Republicans do. And there's still 40 percent about of the vote left.

  The Associated Press did the math and thinks all these votes here mean that Dave McCormick will be the next senator from the state of Pennsylvania.

• Geoff Bennett:

  And what's still left to count?

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Right, so we have got two big Senate races that we're watching. As I said, let's look at Arizona. Ruben Gallego, this is a race that Democrats feel really good about. It's 40 — 50 percent to 48 percent right now. That looks like it's close, but if you look at what's happening here in Phoenix and Maricopa County, Gallego is up by six points and still 30 percent of the vote left to go.

  That's hundreds of thousands of votes that he can bank there. As I said, Democrats feeling pretty good about that one at the moment. A tighter race is in Nevada, where Jacky Rosen is up just by one point. I don't know if everyone remembers. There's so many numbers and races. This race was 49-49 yesterday.

  As we have seen more votes come in, we have seen her margin go up. That is also what Democrats want to see, but it's a squeaker. What happens in Las Vegas gets on our super screen. In Clark County, we are seeing Jacky Rosen there with a very nice margin and a few more votes to come in, but this is also the story of the election.

  Look at that closer margin. Look at what's going on in rural Nevada, huge 40-plus leads by the Republican, Sam Brown, here, but in the end, Democrats feel good about Clark County, but this will be closer than they wanted and we have to see how it turns out.

• Geoff Bennett:

  I don't know how you do it. So many races. You keep track of them all.

  Lisa Desjardins, thanks so much.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  You're welcome.