Who will win control of the House of Representatives? Great match to watch

The party that will control the U.S. House of Representatives for the next two years remains up in the air.

Republicans were seven seats short of the 218 seats needed to seize control Thursday morning. Democrats need 15 more.

The Senate (or upper house) and the White House have switched to the Republicans, so President-elect Donald Trump will have full control when he is sworn in on January 20, 2025.

Control of the House of Representatives, the lower house, gives political parties the power to initiate spending legislation and initiate impeachment proceedings against officials.

Under Trump, a unified Republican Party can more easily push for tax cuts and the introduction of border controls.

But Democrats hope that, amid several tight races, the final votes will be enough to give them a majority in the House of Representatives.

Here are some games that have yet to be announced.

Democrats are closely eyeing five California seats that are critical to winning back the House.

Challengers hope to defeat the incumbent Republicans and flip the seat blue, but preliminary polls show the incumbent Republicans narrowly holding on to the seat.

The main competitions to watch are:

• California 45th: Incumbent Republican Rep. Michelle Steel currently leads Democrat Derek Tran with 70% of the vote. She leads by 4 points.
• California 27th: Democrat George Whitesides is challenging incumbent Republican Rep. Mike Garcia. With 69% of the votes counted, Garcia held a slim lead of 2 percentage points.
• California 41: Incumbent Republican Rep. Ken Calvert is running against Democrat Will Rawlings. With 76 percent of the votes counted, Calvert won by a slim margin of 2 percent.
• California 22: Democrat Rudy Salas is challenging incumbent Republican Rep. David Valadao, who currently leads by 10 points. Just over 56% of the votes have been counted.
• California 13: Incumbent Republican Rep. John Duarte is running against Democrat Adam Gray. The vote count was 52%, with Duarte leading by 2 percentage points.

The state’s two high-profile games currently have margins of less than 2%.

Republican Juan Cicomani currently leads his Democratic challenger Kirsten Engel by 0.5 percentage points in Arizona’s 6th District, located in the southeastern corner of the state. About 67% of the votes have been counted.

In Arizona’s 1st Congressional District, David Schweikert leads Democratic challenger Amish Shah by 1%, with 69% of the votes counted.

Schweikert’s district covers northeastern Maricopa County outside Phoenix.

In Maine, incumbent Democratic Rep. Jared Golden is fighting to retain his seat — one of the state’s two congressional districts.

Maine’s 2nd Congressional District covers most of the state north of Augusta and Portland.

Golden currently leads by less than a point in the race against Republican challenger Austin Theriot. About 93% of the votes have been counted.

Democrats hope to hold on to a seat in Ohio’s 9th Congressional District, which includes Toledo in northern Ohio.

Incumbent Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, who has served in Congress since 1983, is leading the race against Republican challenger Derek Merrin.

Kaptur leads by a slim margin of 0.3 points. About 95% of the votes have been counted.

North American correspondent Anthony Zurcher lays out the implications of the race for the White House in his twice-weekly US election briefing. British readers can Register here. People outside the UK can Register here.