WASHINGTON – Republicans claimed a commanding majority in the House on Tuesday, pushing their dominance to near-historic levels as they dispatched the last white Democrats in the South and made inroads in Democratic strongholds nationwide.
The GOP easily won the 218 seats required and was on track to match or surpass the 246 seats they held in President Harry S. Truman's administration more than 60 years ago. President Obama will face an all-GOP Congress in his final two years as Republicans regained control of the Senate.
"We are humbled by the responsibility the American people have placed with us, but this is not a time for celebration," House Speaker John Boehner said in a statement. "It's time for government to start getting results and implementing solutions to the challenges facing our country, starting with our still-struggling economy."
Democrats had a few bright spots, but their hopes of keeping losses to a minimum disappeared under the GOP onslaught.
Republicans tightened their grip on the South, a steady march since Lyndon B. Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Republican Evan Jenkins, a Democrat-turned-Republican state senator, knocked out 19-term Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia.
Republican businessman Rick Allen prevailed over another Southern Democrat, five-term Rep. John Barrow of Georgia.
Republicans capitalized on growing dissatisfaction with Obama as voters took out their frustration on the party controlling the White House. The pervasive malaise nationwide also dragged down Democrats.
Overall, the GOP gained 10 seats and counting; Democrats just one.
Aggressive in the midterms, Republicans claimed three Democratic seats in New York, upending six-term Rep. Tim Bishop on Long Island and Dan Maffei in the Syracuse area while winning an open seat upstate.
Republicans also prevailed on other Democratic turf, easing out freshmen Bill Enyart and Brad Schneider in Illinois.
In one bright spot for the Democrats, Gwen Graham, daughter of a former senator and governor, Bob Graham, knocked out two-term Rep. Steve Southerland in a Florida Panhandle district. Southerland's all-male fundraiser and quip about Graham attending lingerie parties doomed his bid.
A solid GOP majority means Boehner can afford defections from his increasingly conservative caucus and still get legislation passed while Republicans will hold more committee seats to guide the party agenda.
Boehner raised $102 million to ensure that Republicans would tighten their grip on the House.
For Obama, a dozen House losses would be an ignominious distinction. The president, whose party lost 63 seats in 2010, would become the two-term president with the most midterm defeats, surpassing Truman's 74.
