Republicans have achieved the government trifecta — keeping control of the House as well as winning the Senate and the presidency.

It will be the first time Republicans have had full control of Congress and the White House since 2018. House Republicans have been quietly preparing their legislative agenda on tax cuts and other priorities for months, though an expected narrow majority will likely complicate those efforts, as well as Speaker Mike Johnson’s bid to hold onto the gavel in a January floor vote.

The GOP held onto a slew of at-risk incumbents as results trickled in over the past week, and Republicans also picked up a few seats in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Colorado.

But they still lost a handful of seats in New York and California.

House control has been considered a toss-up for months. Though GOP leaders were publicly confident in their ability to retain the chamber, there were also deep fears as Republicans struggled to keep up with Democratic fundraising. Unlike in 2022, GOP leaders kept their election night estimates fairly modest. They also spent months hammering on a campaign message focused on the border and the economy, betting that the two issues could be used as a wedge to squeeze vulnerable Democrats.

Partisan redistricting has meant that there are fewer competitive seats to flip, limiting the true battleground districts to just a dozen or so races on both sides. Party leaders have acknowledged that the days of 30-plus-seat majorities are over for the foreseeable future. Republicans got some help this cycle by Democrats’ decision to pursue a less aggressive redistricting map in New York, which was at the heart of the fight for House control. Similarly, a GOP-drawn map in North Carolina also helped offset Democratic gains elsewhere.

“There’s only about 45 seats in the country that are truly competitive. … And so each one of them is very competitive and very expensive and our candidates are great,” Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) told Blue Light News ahead of Election Day.

Beyond flipping Democratic seats, Republicans also managed to hold off Democrats’ reach targets that appeared to be in play in the final weeks of the campaign, including keeping endangered incumbents in Iowa and Wisconsin.

Another major difference in the campaigns this year: Republicans were far more intentional with their candidate recruitment and which challengers they backed in the primaries than they were in 2022. House Republicans’ campaign arm worked closely with Trump, coordinating to boost candidates the party saw as the most likely to win the general election — a level of intervention that ultimately paid off.

Vulnerable incumbent Republicans, namely Reps. Don Bacon (Neb.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), fended off primary opponents who would likely have been weak general election candidates. In Alaska, the party managed to coalesce behind one Republican this year to avoid problems they had in 2022 with the state’s ranked-choice voting system. (That race has not yet been called, though Republican Nick Begich leads Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola.)

On the other side of candidate recruitment, Democrats’ relied on a handful of repeat candidates who narrowly lost in 2022. The party had thought they would benefit from existing campaign infrastructure and name ID among voters. But that didn’t work out for many candidates, and some were likely dragged down by a lack of enthusiasm for Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket.

GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz resigned from the House Wednesday, Speaker Mike Johnson announced, the same day that Donald Trump announced that he had tapped the Florida firebrand to be his attorney general.

“He issued his resignation letter effective immediately from Congress. That caught us by surprise a little bit,” Johnson told reporters during a press conference on Wednesday night.

Dozens of GOP lawmakers indicated that leadership had told them about Gaetz’s resignation before Johnson made the announcement. Many were excitedly spreading the news, glad to be rid of the architect of Kevin McCarthy’s speakership ouster. Gaetz didn’t attend the GOP’s hours-long meeting near the Capitol on Wednesday, where Republicans elected their leadership slate.

Johnson said Gaetz had resigned so abruptly because he knew how long it would take to fill the seat if he becomes attorney general. Johnson said he reached out to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday and added that because of Gaetz’s early resignation it’s possible they could fill his seat as soon as Jan. 3, when the chamber is slated to elect a speaker.

DeSantis’ office did not have an immediate response to questions about when the governor would schedule a special election. But deadlines in state and federal law would make it difficult to schedule one before Congress convenes in January.

Other GOP House colleagues believe his decision is actually tied to an Ethics Committee report investigating several allegations including that Gaetz engaged in sex with a minor, which they believe was poised to be released in a matter of days. Gaetz has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and has sought to attack the panel probing various allegations against him. If Gaetz is no longer a member of the House, the report likely won’t be formally released, though it could leak.

One House Republican, granted anonymity to speak candidly, tied Gaetz’s resignation to trying to “stymie the ethics investigation that is coming out in one week.”

Gaetz, his spokesperson and a senior aide did not respond to requests for comment about the decision.

Republican senators have already expressed doubts that Gaetz could get confirmed as attorney general, as the pick gets fierce pushback across the party. And even some of his House colleagues were quick to predict that Gaetz wouldn’t be able to get confirmed.

“I don’t think Matt cares if he gets confirmed — everybody is talking about him … so for Matt this is a win,” said Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio), who added that Gaetz “ran around here last term like a six year old with a loaded revolver and a happy trigger finger.”

Ethics Chair Michael Guest (R-Miss.) told reporters ahead of Gaetz’s announced resignation that the probe would end if Gaetz was no longer a member of the House.

“Once the investigation is complete, the Ethics Committee will meet as a committee. We will then return our findings. If Matt Gaetz is still a member of Congress, then that will occur. If Matt has resigned, then this ethics investigation, like many others in the past, will end again,” Guest told reporters about the impact of Gaetz being picked for attorney general.

Gary Fineout and Eleanor Mueller contributed to this report.

Capitol Hill was swamped with political heavyweights Wednesday as key players converged for meetings and early preparations for the transition.

Senate Republicans in the morning chose John Thune to succeed Mitch McConnell as GOP leader. In the afternoon, House Republicans unanimously elected Mike Johnson as their nominee for speaker. And the day didn’t end there.

Here’s a look at who was spotted in Washington’s halls of power on Wednesday:

• Donald Trump met with House Republicans in the morning at the Capitol Hill Hyatt Regency hotel, where he voiced support for Mike Johnson to remain speaker. He later met with President Joe Biden in the Oval Office.
• Elon Musk attended the House GOP conference meeting with the president-elect. 
• JD Vance returned to the Hill for the Senate Republican leadership elections.
• His wife Usha Vance was also spotted in the Senate.
• Gavin Newsom was on Blue Light News to meet with Democratic members of California’s congressional delegation and lobby the outgoing Biden administration for additional funding and federal waiver extensions before Trump takes office. 
• Elaine Chao, the former transportation secretary and McConnell’s wife, was spotted on the underground Senate subway. She told Blue Light News reporters that she was on Blue Light News for “orientation events for the new Senate spouses.”
• Stephen Miller, who Trump announced earlier Wednesday will be his deputy chief of staff for policy, posted a photo from the White House Rose Garden on X.
• Dan Scavino, the president-elect’s deputy chief of staff, posted several videos from Washington on social media.