It’s not the red wave Republicans had envisioned, but it will allow the party to launch investigations into the Biden administration and block his agenda

Republicans will win control of the House, CNN projects, and with that majority comes the power of committees and influence to set the agenda, which will make things much harder for the Biden administration in the next two years.

The GOP has won the 218 seats necessary to claim the majority, according to CNN projections, and Democrats will have a narrow majority in the Senate.

CNN chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju explained why winning control of the House is significant for Republicans. 

Additionally, Kevin McCarthy, who won his party’s nomination for speaker of the House, and the rest of GOP leadership will be able to set the exact schedule for what they want to bring to the floor. They can also refuse to bring measures up and set priorities that align with their party’s agenda, Raju added.

In the first two years of President Joe Biden’s term, Democrats held a narrow majority in both the House and Senate. This allowed them to pass some significant bills strictly along party lines, like the Inflation Reduction Act, for example, Raju explained.

“They will no longer be able to do that, because in order to move through the budget process, you need support within… essentially among your party, and Republicans and Democrats would not agree to move in such sweeping legislation like that,” Raju said in his analysis, adding that any legislation that passes now will have to be incremental.

Republicans will win control of the House of Representatives, CNN projects, reaching the threshold of 218 seats needed for a majority in the chamber.  

The victory will fall short of their hopes of a “red wave” but thwart President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda and will likely subject his White House to relentless investigations.

The fact that the GOP finally passed the threshold of 218 seats needed for control of the chamber eight days after Election Day – and that it came down to the final districts to report results – underscores the party’s underwhelming midterm election performance, which history and political logic suggested should have delivered a heftier rebuke to Biden and Democrats.

In defiance of political gravity, Democrats held onto the Senate after an election dominated by concerns about high inflation and influenced, in some places, by the Supreme Court’s overturning of a constitutional right to abortion this summer. There’s still an outstanding Senate race in Georgia, which will be decided by a December runoff and will determine how large the Democrats’ majority will be.

Republicans’ victory in the House will end Democrat Nancy Pelosi’s second tenure as speaker in January. But its majority looks set to number a handful of seats, far short of initial expectations in a margin that will make managing a restive Republican conference a stiff task for party leaders.

And while less impressive than party leaders had hoped for, it still represents a return of Trump-style ideology and chaos politics to Washington, given the strong influence the ex-president is likely to wield over his acolytes in the GOP conference. The former president announced his 2024 presidential bid on Tuesday night.

Republican Rep. Mike Garcia will in California’s 27 District, CNN projects, helping the GOP reach the 218 seats necessary to gain control of the House.

After Maine’s ranked-choice tabulation, Rep. Jared Golden will win in the state’s 2nd Congressional District, CNN projects, defeating Republican Bruce Poliquin in a rematch of their 2018 contest for the same seat. This is a Democratic hold.

Here’s where things stand in the House:

Republicans need to win one more race to reach the 218 seats necessary to gain control of the House.

The $122 million-dollar Los Angeles mayor’s race between US Rep. Karen Bass and real estate magnate Rick Caruso is still too close to call, along with six House races in California that could determine the balance of power in Washington, raising a perennial question: Why does it take California so long to count its votes?

More than a week after Election Day and as the nation awaits an official call on which party will control the US House of Representatives, attention is turning to some of the outstanding races in California that could tip the scales. Tuesday was the last day that county election officials could accept ballots that were postmarked on or before Election Day — meaning the Golden State is just getting started counting some of those late-arriving ballots.

California now mails every registered voter a ballot, a practice that began in 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic and ultimately became permanent in Sept. 2021 in an effort to increase voter access and participation. Under state law, ballots postmarked on or before Election Day must be accepted by county elections offices for seven days after polls close.

The sheer volume of ballots that election officials are now counting is enormous. In the 2020 election, more than 15 million mail ballots were cast in the general election – comprising about 87% of the total. This year, there were nearly 22 million registered California voters by mid-October, according to figures from the California secretary of state.

The official canvassing period — the process of tabulating votes — will continue up to Dec. 8, when county election officials must report their final official results to the secretary of state (though some counties have set earlier deadlines to certify their own election results). The California secretary of state will certify the state’s results by Dec. 16.

Keep reading here.

Former Vice President Mike Pence told CBS News that he is “closing the door” on testifying before the House Select Committee investigating Jan. 6, putting an end to the question of whether he would agree to speak with the committee before it wraps its investigation. 

“I am closing the door on that, but I must say again, the partisan nature of the Jan. 6 committee has been a disappointment to me,” Pence said.  

Pence criticized the makeup of the committee, ignoring the fact that Republicans rejected earlier opportunities to form the panel in a more bipartisan fashion, but acknowledged that he did not stand in the way of members of his senior staff, including his chief of staff Marc Short, from testifying in front of the panel. 

“It’s inconceivable to me that one party would appoint every member of a committee in Congress that’s antithetical to the whole idea of the committee system,” Pence said. 

He continued, “We have a separation of powers under the Constitution of the United States. And I believe it would establish a terrible precedent for the Congress to summon a Vice President of the United States to speak about deliberations that took place at the White House.”

Pence said even though he does not want to testify before the committee, he would continue to share his story about what happened on Jan. 6 in his book and he will “continue to speak openly about it.”

CNN has previously reported that Pence’s legal counsel had been in communication with the committee about whether he would testify. Over the summer, the panel dedicated an entire hearing to the pressure campaign Pence faced in the lead-up to Capitol attack, which included testimony from some of his top aides.

GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a member of the committee, was quick to criticize Pence’s decision not to testify.

“Hey Pence, do you like Democracy or nah? Did trump break the law or nah? Pick a lane and a position. You will fail to please everyone” Kinzinger tweeted.

Pence will participate in a CNN town hall airing at 9:00 p.m. ET tonight.

A growing number of Senate Republicans are calling for a reassessment of the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s spending decisions after the party failed to take back the majority in 2022 despite a favorable national political environment. 

The NRSC and the Senate Leadership Fund, the Mitch McConnell-aligned Super PAC, have sparred for months over the quality of various candidates and when, where and how to spend resources.

Utah Senator Mitt Romney said Wednesday that he has not called for an “audit” of the NRSC. But he would like to see an evaluation of its “initiatives,” “investments,” “fundraising” and payments to political consultants.

“How well did various aspects of fundraising go,” he asked. “How much was paid to various consultants and did they do the job we wanted them to do?” 

Asked if he was concerned about any potential wrongdoing, Romney said, “No.”

Republican Sen. Rick Scott, the NRSC chair, said in a statement that the Senate GOP campaign arm is “more than happy” to discuss its spending with senators. Politico first reported that a couple of lawmakers — Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Thom Tillis — privately called for an audit of the NRSC on Tuesday. 

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley said there was a “distinct change in tone” from members at the Senate GOP’s closed-door meeting on Wednesday.

“Senators backed off of that today,” said Hawley. “I don’t know if there was a little indigestion about that… People who had yesterday were using that word, today said, ‘Oh, that’s not what I meant. That’s not what I meant.’”

But Tillis reiterated his call on Wednesday, according to a person familiar. And a Blackburn spokesperson said, “Senator Blackburn’s position has not changed. That is incorrect.”

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said he has “plenty of time” to get the support of members of his conference who voted against his speakership bid on Tuesday, following an hours-long meeting where Republicans discussing the rules package that will govern the new Congress.

McCarthy said progress was made on several fronts, including expanding the Steering Committee and saying leadership would like to open up the floor for more amendments. 

“We’ll continue to work with our conference to be able to produce more of their amendments for the floor,” he said. “We’re not done. It was a great discussion. We got part of it done. We’ll carry it on again after we come back” from recess, McCarthy said.

Remember: CNN has yet to project which party will win control of the House although the GOP is only one seat away from gaining the necessary 218 seats.

Former Vice President Mike Pence is set to participate in a CNN town hall tonight at 9 p.m. ET as questions swirl about his plans for 2024 and the direction of the Republican Party after a disappointing showing in last week’s midterm elections.

CNN anchor and chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper will be moderating the discussion. The town hall will be held in New York City in front of a live studio audience and Pence is expected to take questions.

The town hall is taking place the day after former President Donald Trump announced his third bid for president and follows the release of Pence’s memoir, “So Help Me God,” on Tuesday.

Pence has hinted at his own potential 2024 run, recently telling ABC News he thinks “we’ll have better choices in the future” than Trump. In the same interview, he criticized Trump for being “reckless” with his tweet attacking him on Jan. 6, 2021.

The former vice president has been coy about his plans for 2024, but he has long been viewed as a potential aspirant for the Republican presidential nomination.

How can you watch it? The town hall will stream live for paid TV subscribers via CNN.com and CNN OTT and mobile apps under “TV Channels,” and on CNNgo, including on top of our live updates coverage.

The town hall will also be available on demand beginning Thursday, Nov. 17, to paid TV subscribers via CNN.com, CNN apps, and cable operator platforms.