Yesterday, Decision Desk called CA-3 for Republican Kevin Kiley which gave the GOP control of the House. The Associated Press still hasn’t called CA-3 but this afternoon it did call another California race which has the same result.

BREAKING: Republican Mike Garcia wins reelection to U.S. House in California's 27th Congressional District. #APracecall at 3:32 p.m. PST. https://t.co/2nlgpjiEZK

— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) November 16, 2022

The NY Times has the headline above at the top of their homepage. Here’s a bit of the story:

Republicans seized a slender majority in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, a delayed yet consequential finish to the 2022 midterm elections that will reorder the balance of power in Washington and is expected to effectively give the party a veto on President Biden’s agenda for the next two years.

With vote counting stretching for over a week, the Republican Party formally captured the 218 House seats needed to claim the majority after just four years out of power. The outcomes in seven close races that remain undecided will determine the final size of a slim Republican majority that will be far narrower than party leaders had expected, though Republicans still cheered the achievement…

The victory of Representative Mike Garcia of California pushed Republicans into the majority, a somewhat anticlimactic finish to an election that was an overall disappointment for House Republicanswho had arrived at Election Day with grandiose predictions of a red wave…

Still, there is a saying in Congress that the only number that matters in the House is 218 — and Republicans will enter 2023 with at least that many votes, ushering in a new era of divided government.

Now that the AP has made it ‘media official’ everyone is acknowledging it.

Republicans gain control of the House of Representatives after winning at least 218 seats with 7 seats still uncalled.

The deciding race was the re-election of Republican Rep. Mike Garcia in California's 27th congressional district https://t.co/5HTq7RALXz pic.twitter.com/jI9iOwFVa6

— Bloomberg (@business) November 17, 2022

Republicans will take control of the House of Representatives, according to a projection from the CNN Decision Desk.

This projection is a result of CNN projecting that Republican Mike Garcia will win the race in California's 27th congressional district.

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) November 16, 2022

Republicans have flipped the U.S. House of Representatives, gaining control with a slimmer majority than expected. https://t.co/RqDBWjxyyA pic.twitter.com/3hi6TBfXTx

— POLITICO (@politico) November 16, 2022

And to be fair it’s not just the media that waited for the AP call.

🚨 BREAKING 🚨 Republicans have officially flipped the People's House! Americans are ready for a new direction, and House Republicans are ready to deliver. pic.twitter.com/JIRrLEhKQe

— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) November 17, 2022

President Biden has issued a statement of congratulations which also doubles as the launch of the Democrats’ talking point about the do-nothing GOP congress.

Last week’s elections demonstrated the strength and resilience of American democracy. There was a strong rejection of election deniers, political violence, and intimidation. There was an emphatic statement that, in America, the will of the people prevails.

I congratulate Leader McCarthy on Republicans winning the House majority, and am ready to work with House Republicans to deliver results for working families.

In this election, voters spoke clearly about their concerns: the need to lower costs, protect the right to choose, and preserve our democracy. As I said last week, the future is too promising to be trapped in political warfare. The American people want us to get things done for them. They want us to focus on the issues that matter to them and on making their lives better. And I will work with anyone – Republican or Democrat – willing to work with me to deliver results for them.

This person who thrilled Democrats all last weekend by predicting they would hold the House, climbed down from that tree earlier this week. Today he’s blaming the loss of House control not on “the will of the people” but on “extreme gerrymandering” and “botched redistricting” in New York.

Republicans didn't gain control of the House because of the will of the people. Republicans gained control of the House because of extreme gerrymandering and the botched redistricting in NY. If Democrats want to overcome this in 2024, they must start recalibrating now.

— Christopher Bouzy (@cbouzy) November 17, 2022

What he doesn’t say is that the reason redistricting was botched in New York was because of, wait for it…extreme gerrymandering by Democrats. Regular readers might remember this story but it was the ill-advised attempts by Democrats to explicitly violate the NY constitution which resulted in their maps being thrown out by a series of courts.

The state’s Court of Appeals said the Democratic-led Legislature lacked the authority to redraw congressional and state Senate maps after an independent redistricting commission charged with crafting new maps failed to reach a consensus…

Because of new population data from the 2020 census, New York is set to lose one seat in Congress in 2021. The maps devised by the Legislature would have given Democrats a strong majority of registered voters in 22 of the state’s 26 congressional districts. Right now, Republicans currently hold eight of the state’s 27 seats…

The appeals court, made up of judges appointed entirely by Democratic governors, sided with the Republican plaintiffs who argued the Legislature sidestepped the process set forth in the 2014 reforms, including a provision in the state constitution barring the redrawing of districts for partisan gain.

“The legislature responded by creating and enacting maps in a nontransparent manner controlled exclusively by the dominant political party — doing exactly what they would have done had the 2014 constitutional reforms never been passed,” DiFiore wrote.

In short, Democrats have only themselves to blame for the “botched redistricting” in New York. Perhaps if they hadn’t attempted to egregiously violate the state constitution this would have gone better for them.

In any case, the GOP has control of the House and will hopefully gain a couple more seats. If there are any more big race calls tonight I’ll update below.