Former President Donald Trump is expected to launch his third bid for the White House tonight. It comes as Republicans are within one seat of winning a majority in the House.
Republicans are on the cusp of claiming control of the House of Representatives. After notching victories late Monday night in a handful of congressional races in Arizona, New York, and California, the Republican Party is within one seat of taking the House.
The GOP had hoped for a “red wave” in the midterm elections, which was more of a splatter. Its rosy predictions turned out to result in a much smaller majority of the House than the GOP had hoped for, as well as still not having control of the Senate.
Democrats held control of the Senate. It means Congress will be divided next year.
Attention will now be focused on a few districts in California and Colorado where the Republican candidate is leading in the vote count. A race call in any of these districts on Tuesday would almost certainly give Republicans the 218 seats needed to retake the House majority.
While midterm votes are still being counted, former Trump is expected to announce his 2024 presidential bid on Tuesday night, making it his third campaign for the office.
A growing number of Republicans, however, see Trump as a political liability, especially given the party’s electoral showing in the midterm elections.
The Republicans’ failure to deliver the most promised “red wave” in the midterms was a significant blow to Trump’s claim to be the voice of his party’s voters, not least because of the defeat of key candidates endorsed by him.
But backing from the grassroots, which gave him a tight grip on the Republicans for years and kept its hostile leadership at bay, has been eroding for months.
Republicans say the former president’s support has fallen as a result of his continued pushing of election conspiracy theories, the investigations into his businesses and political actions, and his attacks on his most threatening challenger, Florida governor Ron DeSantis.
Above all, there is a deepening fear that Trump is now even more divisive than he was two years ago when he lost the popular vote to Joe Biden by more than 7 million votes and is therefore unelectable.
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