By Jason Lange
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republicans on Saturday appeared close to clinching control of the U.S. House of Representatives, a critical element for President-elect Donald Trump to advance his agenda when he returns to the White House in January.
With votes still being counted from the Nov. 5 general election, Republicans had won 212 seats in the 435-member House, according to projections by Edison Research, which projected on Friday night that Republican Jeff Hurd had enough votes to keep Republican control of Colorado’s 3rd congressional district.
Republicans now need to win six more seats to keep control of the House and they already have enough victories to wrest control of the U.S. Senate from Democrats, though Edison Research projected late on Friday that Democratic U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen won reelection in Nevada.
With Trump’s victory in the presidential election and Republican control of the Senate already decided, keeping hold of the House would give Republicans sweeping powers to potentially ram through a broad agenda of tax and spending cuts, energy deregulation and border security controls.
Results of 19 House races remain unclear, mostly in competitive districts in Western states where the pace of vote counting is typically slower than in the rest of the country.
Ten of the seats are currently held by Republicans and nine by Democrats. Fourteen of seats were widely seen as competitive ahead of the election.
(Reporting by Jason Lange; editing by Diane Craft)
