Republicans expected to keep the House of Representatives — with Clinton's FBI scare a possible factor

The U.S. House of Representatives chamber.

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last updated 8 November 2016

Although Hillary Clinton is currently favored to win the presidency tomorrow, and the races for the Senate remain tight, Republicans are still heavily favored to retain control of the House of Representatives. Indeed, Democrats might just end up right where they were after the 2012 election, right before they suffered additional losses in the 2014 midterm election.

The Cook Political Report writes that Democrats can expect only meager gains — with some tight races likely affected by the recent decision of FBI Director James Comey to announce that the bureau was still reviewing Hillary Clinton's emails, only to then clear her from facing charges this past weekend:

Democratic strategists express frustration that they were on the cusp of picking up more than 15 seats until the Comey letter helped bring straggling GOP voters "home" to Donald Trump. These voters' fresh motivation to oppose Hillary Clinton may rescue troubled suburban GOP seats like CA-10, CO-06, FL-26, KS-03, PA-08, and VA-10 — seats that could have easily fallen to Democrats if Clinton had run up a double digit margin. [The Cook Political Report]

If current "toss-up" races split down the middle, Democrats would only post a net gain of 10 seats, The Cook Political Report notes.

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Likewise, University of Virginia political analyst Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball projects the Democrats picking up only 13 seats in the House, leaving the Republicans with an advantage of 234 seats to the Democrats' 201. That would be the exact same as the result of the 2012 House races.

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