Nov. 5 (UPI) — Early voting tallies show Republicans have secured 78 seats to 35 for Democrats as of 9 p.m. EST with at least 218 needed to win a majority in the House of Representatives.
Some states will know their respective election results by the end of Tuesday night while others might take another week to determine closely run races for the U.S. House of Representatives.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., might win another term in the House and as House Speaker if the GOP retains the majority in the House of Representatives.
If the Democratic Party wrests control of the House from the GOP, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., could become the nation’s first Black speaker of the House.
The makeup of the 119th U.S. Congress will be decided on Election Day on Tuesday with several races expected to be close.
There are 468 seats in Congress that are on the ballot Tuesday, including all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Several House seats are open and even more are considered toss-up contests.
Republicans hold a 220-212 majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, though in-fighting between factions of the party has stuttered its ability to pursue some of its policies. The political makeup of the House will be crucial for the incoming president to plot out their goals for their first two years in office.
Alaska: At-large seat
Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, is running for re-election for Alaska’s at-large House seat. She was elected in 2022, receiving 55% of the vote to win by a 10-point margin.
Peltola’s challenger from the Republican Party, Nick Begich, ran against Peltola and former Gov. Sarah Palin in 2022. Alaska ran its first ranked-choice voting election during the midterms and Begich was eliminated in the second round of voting after receiving 24.5% of the vote. Palin received 26.3% in that round.
Peltola was elected to the state legislature in 1998 at 24 years old. She served in the legislature until 2009. She was the executive director of the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission in 2022 before entering the race to succeed Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, who had died in March of that year.
In the U.S. House, she serves on the Committee on Natural Resources and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. She has received endorsements from Alaska’s Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski and the Alaska Federation of Natives.
Begich is a native of Anchorage and the founder of a tech company called FarShore Partners. He served as the board director for the Matanuska Telecom Association, co-chair of the Alaska Republican Party finance committee and is the former president of the MTA Foundation Board.
Begich is the grandson of Nick Begich Sr., a former U.S. lawmaker who disappeared during a flight aboard a twin-engine aircraft in 1972. The plane and its four occupants were not found.
Michigan District 7
Michigan’s District 7 House seat is open due to Rep. Elise Slotkin, D-Lansing., running for a seat in the U.S. Senate. Contending for her vacant seat are Democrat Curtis Hertel and Republican Tom Barrett.
Barrett challenged Slotkin in the 2022 midterm election. Slotkin won that race with 192,809 votes to Barrett’s 172,624, an edge of about 51% to 46%.
Hertel and Barrett are former state senators. Hertel served at the state capitol in Lansing, Mich., representing the 23rd district from 2015 to 2022 when he reached his term limit. He also served as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s director of legislative affairs, was a policy analyst for the state’s Department of Community Health from 2004 to 2005 and was on the Ingham County Board of Commissioners from 2001 to 2008.
Barrett served in the state senate from 2019 to 2022. He was on the appropriations committee and the subcommittee on community health and human services, the committee on energy and technology and was an analyst for the Michigan Department of Treasury. He was elected to the state legislature in 2015 and served two terms in the House.
Barrett is a veteran of the U.S. Army. The former helicopter pilot retired from the National Guard in 2022 after 21 years of service.
Michigan District 8
Rep. Dan Kildee is not seeking re-election in District 8, leaving the seat open. The Democrat was elected to the U.S. House in 2022, but he held office as an elected official for more than 40 years after being elected to the Flint, Mich., Board of Education at 18 years old in 1977.
Vying for Kildee’s vacant seat are Democrat Kristen McDonald Rivet, Republican Paul Junge and several third-party candidates. Junge challenged Kildee in 2022. Kildee earned more than 53% of the vote and won by more than 30,000 votes.
This is Junge’s third attempt to be District 8’s representative in Congress. Slotkin defeated him in 2020 by about 3%. Prior to that, he was part of former President Donald Trump’s administration, working with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services external affairs department. He has been endorsed by the former president.
McDonald Rivet represents Michigan’s Senate District 35, serving her first term. She is a former executive director of Michigan Head Start Association, a nonprofit organization that advocates for education access for vulnerable children and families. She was also the vice president of Michigan Future Inc., president and CEO of Greater Midland Inc., and served as a commissioner for her hometown Bay City, Mich.
Colorado District 8
Rep. Yadira Caraveo, D-Colo., is finishing her first term in the U.S. House and seeks re-election in Colorado’s District 8. She is running against Republican Gabe Evans
Caraveo was elected to office after narrowly defeating Republican Barbara Kirkmeyer in 2022. Caraveo won by less than 2,000 votes and one percentage point.
The daughter of Mexican immigrants, Caraveo is a pediatrician who was elected to the Colorado legislature in 2019. She served one term before campaigning for the U.S. House. She serves on the committees on agriculture and science, space and technology.
Evans served with the U.S. Army and National Guard for 12 years as a helicopter pilot. He is also a former police officer with the Arvada, Colo., Police Department.
In 2022, Evans was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives, receiving about 63% of the vote in that race. He is on committees on energy and environment, judiciary and legislative audit.
Pennsylvania District 17
Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Pa., seeks re-election in Pennsylvania District 17, facing a challenge from Republican Rob Mercuri.
Deluzio is finishing his first term in office after defeating Republican Jeremy Shaffer in the midterm election in 2022. Deluzio received more than 53% of the vote.
Deluzio served in the U.S. Navy and has been deployed three times. He is an attorney who worked for the Brennan Center for Justice’s voting rights and security teams following his years on active duty.
As a member of the House, Deluzio’s committee assignments include the committee on armed services and on transportation and infrastructure.
Mercuri is a U.S. Army veteran who did two tours in Iraq. He has a business degree from the University of Massachusetts and is a former senior vice president of risk and finance for PNC Bank.
In 2020, Mercuri was elected to the Pennsylvania General Assembly. He has served two terms as a state legislator. During that time he has served on the education and finance committees.
Iowa District 1
Iowa’s District 1 House race is the second in a row between incumbent Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Democrat Christina Bohannan. Miller-Meeks was re-elected for a second term in 2022 after receiving 162,947 votes to Bohannan’s 142,173.
Miller-Meeks won a historically close race in 2020 to ascend to the U.S. House, defeating Democrat Rita Hart by six votes. Hart contested the result for several months before conceding.
During her tenure on Capitol Hill, Miller-Meeks has been a member of the committee on energy and commerce and the committee on veterans’ affairs.
Miller-Meeks served in the U.S. Army as a nurse and ophthalmologist for 24 years. She began a private ophthalmology practice in 1997. In 2014, she was appointed as the director of the Iowa Department of Public Health. She remained in that position for four years. In 2018 she was elected to the state senate.
Bohannan is completing her first term in the Iowa Legislature representing House District 89. She is a law professor and faculty senate president at the University of Iowa and a former engineer with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
Nebraska District 2
Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., is seeking a fifth term in office representing Nebraska District 2. His opponent, Democrat Tony Vargas, is a state senator and former school teacher. These candidates also faced each other in the 2022 midterm election.
Bacon won in 2022 by a count of 112,663 votes to 106,807. He won the rural Sarpy and Saunders counties by about 7,000 votes. Vargas won Douglas County by about 5,000 votes. The county seat of Douglas County is Omaha.
Bacon has been in the U.S. House since 2017. He succeeded Democrat Brad Ashford who served one term. Prior to Ashford, Republicans held the seat from 1995 to 2014.
Bacon is an Air Force veteran who served for 29 years. He specialized in electronic warfare and intelligence and was deployed four times to the Middle East. He serves on the House Committee on Agriculture and Committee on Armed Services.
Vargas is completing his second term in the state senate after being elected in 2016. He serves on eight committees, including appropriations, the executive board and the legislative oversight review special committee.
Complaints have been filed against both candidates for alleged campaign finance violations. Bacon is accused of using official U.S. House letterhead for campaign-related activities.
A Federal Elections Commission complaint against Vargas by the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust argues that a fellowship program Vargas took part in should have been disclosed as a political donation.
Neither complaint has been resolved.
Colorado District 3
Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., is vacating her district seat to run for office in a district that has historically favored Republicans, leaving Colorado District 3 open. Boebert won a tightly contested race in 2022 over Democrat Adam Frisch, beating Frisch with 163,839 votes to 163,293.
Boebert will instead run in District 4. That district was won by Republican Greg Lopez in 2022. He received 100,095 votes and his closest competitor, Democrat Trisha Calvarese, received 59,013.
Vying to fill Boebert’s District 3 seat are her 2022 opponent Frisch and Republican Jeff Hurd.
Frisch is a business owner and former member of the Aspen City Council. He served on the council for eight years before running for mayor in 2019. He has also served on the Pitkin County, Colo., Financial Advisory Board. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Frisch became a part-time substitute teacher.
Hurd is an attorney running for office for the first time. He won his Republican primary in June by more than 11,000 votes.
Transgender win
Delaware state Sen. Sarah McBride became the first openly transgender person elected to Congress when she won the state’s only House seat on Tuesday.
McBride, a Democrat, defeated Republican challenger John Whalen III. Her electoral victory was reported by NBC News, CNN and the Delaware News Journal.
“Tonight is a testament to Delawareans: That here in our state of neighbors, we judge candidates based on their ideas and not their identities,” McBride said in her victory speech.
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