Control of House of Representatives is still up for grabs but Democrats face increasingly tough path to majority

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Over the weekend, Democrats won Washington’s 3rd District after Marie Gluesenkamp Pérez beat Republican Joe Kent, who had beaten incumbent Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler in the primary. While his counterpart on the Democratic side, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is famous for keeping her members in line when it comes to voting on big-ticket items such as president Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law or the Inflation Reduction Act, Mr McCarthy has never wrestled complex legislation through the House with just a small number of votes to spare. What’s more, the House Republican Conference he could end up leading as speaker will be rife with Trumpian extremists who have built their careers on pillorying GOP leaders who cooperate with Democrats on anything, even must-pass bills to fund the government or prevent the US from defaulting on sovereign debt and blowing up the world’s economy. It might take days – or weeks – to determine whether Mr McCarthy’s conference will have the 218 members it needs to control the agenda for the next two years.