Good News and Bad News: Republicans Win Control Of The House, McCarthy Nominated for Speaker, McConnell Won Vote to Remain Senate Minority Leader

What could have been worse? Two more years of drunken Nasty Fran Nan would have been worse.

A week after the midterm elections, Decision Desk HQ and other mainstream media outlets have finally confirmed that Republicans will retake the House, albeit by a slim margin.

This from slaynews.com.

Yesterday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was nominated as the Speaker of the House as Republicans won key races that brought them across the finish line to take the 218 seats necessary to gain a majority.

As of 5:55am Eastern Standard Time Thursday, November 17, all but six seats have been decided. Republicans lead 218-211.

The seat that pushed Republicans to 218 came after incumbent Kevin Kiley, (R-CA) held his seat in California’s 3rd Congressional District.

At that time, Kiley was leading by 10,000 votes with just over 50% of the vote in.

While the red wave did not materialize in many key swing states, states like Florida and New York with strong candidates at the top of the ballot, such as Ron DeSantis and Lee Zeldin, were key to delivering the House majority to Republicans.

Republicans flipped three House seats in Florida and four in New York.

On election night, Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told GOP supporters that when they woke up the next day, they would:

[B]e in the majority and Nancy Pelosi will be in the minority.

This result took longer than expected—the predicted GOP “red wave” failed to appear on Election Day—but after a week of waiting, the Republican Party won control of the House of Representatives on Tuesday, November 15, 2022.

McCarthy, who faced a leadership challenge from Rep. Andy Biggs and the House Freedom Caucus, was nominated by his peers on Tuesday to continue his role as leader of the GOP. He’s poised to replace Rep. Nancy Pelosi as speaker of the House in January, although that’s not guaranteed.
The following from 100percentfedup.com.

Senate Republicans voted Wednesday for the GOP leadership role after Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), the National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman, challenged McConnell.

McConnell received 37 votes while Scott received just 10 votes.

One senator voted present.

Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Barrasso (R-WY) nominated McConnell to serve another two years as GOP leader.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) demanded a change in leadership and nominated Scott.

McConnell said:

We collectively I think had a good discussion about what happened in the election and what happens in the next election.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to continue to serve.

He said earlier:

Every one of our candidates knew what they were for, expressed it quite clearly.

It’s pretty obvious, and all of you have been writing about it, what happened.

We underperformed among independents and moderates because their impression of many of the people in our party in leadership roles is that they’re involved in chaos, negativity, excessive attacks, and it frightened independent and moderate Republican voters.

In a recent interview, President Trump said:

I think Rick Scott would be much better than McConnell.

I know McConnell well. I guess probably better than most.

I’m not a fan of McConnell and I am a fan of Rick Scott, and you have others in there that would be very good.

According to Axios:

Sen. John Thune of South Dakota was reelected as minority whip.

Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming was reelected as conference chair.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia was elected vice conference chair.

Sen. Steve Daines of Montana was elected to replace Scott as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC).

Final thoughts: Wishful thinking, yes, but perhaps if We the People demand more, demand better of McConnell and McCarthy they will perform more, perform better. Conservatives and others in a handful of states are in rebellion over election fraud. Hopefully, the Micks will back those rebellions.

Meanwhile, God speed to Conservatism.