STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The results of this election are, of course, measured in numbers, and we can see some of them here at npr.org. On the Senate side, Democrats so far have gained one seat. They have at least 48 seats, along with independents - 47 for Republicans and a handful still undecided, the Senate undecided. On the House side, Republicans have 199 seats wrapped up and still a very good chance to get to that 218, which would be the majority, but they're not there. Our senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro has been following this. And Domenico, I think it - I mean, if we'd woken up to the news that Republicans had already captured the House, I don't think we would have been terribly surprised. They're not there.
DOMENICO MONTANARO, BYLINE: They're not. And, you know, it is quite surprising to see just how much Democrats have stemmed the Republican tide. Republicans still are on track, it appears, to take the House, but with a very slim majority potentially. I mean, I just had to check my numbers multiple times because I just kind of can't quite understand that this is - or see that this is the case. I figure I'm missing things. But there are only 17 races right now where Republicans are either leading or have already been declared the winners. And there are 10 Democratic seats where they have - where they've won or been declared - or they're leading. So you're looking at a potential here for a net of a Republican plus-7. I mean, it could get higher than that to potentially maybe nine, 10.
INSKEEP: I just want to disentangle those numbers a bit.
MONTANARO: Yeah.
INSKEEP: You're saying that Republicans would govern the House, but with a majority of only two, three, four votes more than the Democrats have.
MONTANARO: That's - that is what it appears to be right now. I mean, things are still fluid, so you could see some of these other numbers change. But, I mean, right now it's Republicans plus-2, and they could get up to maybe plus-9, plus-10. But that's, again, like you said, a four-seat majority or so. And what does that mean for Kevin McCarthy, the man who wants to be speaker of the House? There's going to be a lot of second-guessing about his leadership, a lot of finger-pointing at Donald Trump and Donald Trump probably finger-pointing at Kevin McCarthy. There's a lot going on behind the scenes right now about what's happening in that Republican leadership race.
INSKEEP: And a super challenge for governing if McCarthy does become speaker. Don Gonyea is also with us. What did the Donald Trump endorsement do for Republicans last night?
DON GONYEA, BYLINE: You know, he got a couple of significant wins - J.D. Vance in Ohio and Ted Budd in the Senate. But after that - you know, those were both Republican holds. After that, you look at places like Pennsylvania and Georgia, where Dr. Oz and Herschel Walker were very much creations of Donald Trump in this particular election. Again, Oz lost. We don't know what's happening with Walker yet, but those might have been places that would have been solid Republican pickups with a different candidate.
INSKEEP: Yep - could yet be a runoff in Georgia. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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