House Republicans are losing another member and now they can
only afford to lose 1 vote from their majority.
Wisconsin Republican Mike Gallagher will officially be resigning from Congress
next Friday,
April 19th. And this comes just one month after Colorado
Republican Ken Buck gave his two weeks notice.
There are 435 seats in the House and the GOP
started this Congress with 222 members,
but between events like resignations and the historic removal of
George Santos.
When Gallagher leaves, the balance of power becomes 217 Republicans
to 213 Democrats.
But wait, something is off with this math.
217 + 213 = 430,
meaning there are five seats that need to be filled.
And this is where it gets wild.
Currently, there are four special elections on the calendar between
April 30th and June 25th,
and the states of New York,
California, Ohio and Colorado. If a Democrat won every special
election race,
no party would have the 218 members needed to hold
a simple majority.
Without a clear party in control,
what was already statistically the most ineffective Congress in history
would become even more chaotic.
But before you get too nervous or excited,
that outcome is very unlikely.
Ken Buck sold district. Colorado 4 is the most Republican
district in the state,
according to the Cook Partisan Voting Index.
Then you have California 20,
which is former Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's old seat
that he'd held since 2007.
For at least a few weeks,
anyone Republican member that doesn't vote with the majority on
a bill that Democrats aren't already supporting could single handedly
stop an entire piece of legislation from going through.
This margin would also make it much easier for Marjorie
Taylor Greene's motion to remove Mike Johnson as Speaker to
pass if she decides to bring it to the floor
for a vote.