Up to Chad Pergram. He's live on Capitol Hill.
He's got some breaking news about Ken Buck.
Chad. That's right, John. Ken Buck,
the Republican Congressman from Colorado,
has just announced here that he will resign from the
House of Representatives at the end of next week.
Now, we knew that he was going to step down
at the end of this Congress here.
This is going to squeeze this margin for House Republicans.
More and more here. These will be the numbers.
When Ken Buck steps down at the end of next
week,
they will be down to
431 members,
218 Republicans to 213 Democrats.
As I always say, it's about the math.
Right now Republicans can only lose 2 votes on their
side and still pass a bill because a tie vote
to that goes down automatically by rule.
This will still be a two vote bar margin here
for Ken Buck.
And the Republicans of Ken Buck is going to step
aside at the end of next week and that will
increase the headaches for House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Keep in mind that they have to fund the government
again at the end of next week.
There's another tranche of spending bills that they need to
try to move through the House and the Senate to
keep the government open.
That's about 2/3 of all federal spending,
and they have to do it with a tighter margin.
Yet with Ken Buck gone,
John, Chad. Just a reminder,
as Jason Chaffetz is sitting here,
he used to be the head of the Republican Party
there in Colorado.
Did he say specifically why he's leaving in the timing
of this decision?
Yeah, I just looked at his statement a second ago
here.
So this is just coming in as we get it
here.
But, you know, he had indicated that he was going
to step down.
You know, he had expressed a lot of concern here
about how things were going.
You know, he actually put forth a resolution not long
ago.
He was still engaged in legislation to try to invoke
the 25th Amendment
to remove the president. Because of what was said in
the Robert her report about whether or not the president
was fully with it.
That hasn't gotten any consideration here.
That demonstrates that Ken Buck was was working on this
right up to the end.
He also was at odds with his party.
You might remember that he was one
of three Republicans who voted against the impeachment of Alejandro
Mayorkas,
the Homeland Security Secretary here.
You know, he he's a conservative.
He doesn't like what Mayorkas had done,
but he thought that it was a bridge too far
to impeach Mayorkas.
Only the 2nd cabinet secretary ever impeached.
So he was at odds
with parts of his party for quite a long time
there.
Sandra. Yeah. I mean, he was very vocal about that.
Just didn't think it was a good idea.
Didn't know why they were going down that road.
What what what are the implications for November when you
take a look at
the ratings for the House and the number of
seats that they think that they might be able to
either gain or worry about losing Senate.
Senate Republicans are thinking that they could probably do pretty
well because Democrats are defending in 23,
Republicans are defending at 11,
and a number of those are open seats,
and they're quite competitive. So what are the implications in
the overall for November?
Well, it's certainly a lot tougher for Democrats to hold
on to the Senate because of the way the map
has been drawn.
It favors the Republicans right now.
We're still trying to parcel out some of the maps
in the House of Representatives,
but I'll tell you the House will be won or
lost,
probably in California and probably in New York State because
they have new maps there.
You might remember that Republicans surprised a lot of people
flipping 5
House seats in New York.
There were three there that they were that they they
thought they might be able to hold on to,
but that's going to be where the House is,
is won in the Senate here.
That is an uphill battle because they have to defend
Sherrod Brown in Ohio.
He's a Democrat. He's won in the Senate in previous
Democratic years.
He won in in 2006.
He won in 2012 with the Barack Obama on the
ballot.
He won in 2018, which was a Democratic year in
that midterm election.
Jon Tester is the Democrat from Montana.
And keep in mind that that he always sometimes figures
out a way to win.
He's a moderate. But look at other places where the
presidential election is going to be in play,
Wisconsin and Michigan. And of course in New York,
as you mentioned, you know,
there is some seats that flipped toward the Republicans.
But that Third Congressional District just flipped back when they
booted George Santos from the body.
All right. Thanks very much.