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Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Ashley Lopez. I cover voting. I'm Deirdre Walsh. I cover Congress.

And I'm Mara Liason, senior national political correspondent. And today on the show,

we're going to be talking about the future of the Democratic Party after a pretty bruising election

cycle. Deirdre, I want to talk about Congress first. First of all, let's talk about the balance of

power in each of the houses first. Right. Well, Republicans took control of the Senate. They flipped four

seats in Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Montana. So they will have in January a 53-seat majority,

with the Democrats having 47 members in their caucus. In the House, Republicans will keep their super narrow majority. The other

challenge Republicans in the House are already facing going into January is that a couple of

their members have been tapped to serve in the Trump administration. Another member, Matt

Gates, who was initially tapped to be,

Trump's nominee as Attorney General, ended up withdrawing, but does not plan to come back to the

House. So House Speaker Mike Johnson is facing vacancies along with the narrow majority,

which is going to just make his job that much tougher. Well, are those seats expected to be filled by Republicans?

They are. They are. These are all solidly Republican vacancies in Florida and upstate New York for Elise Stefaniq, who is tapped to be ambassador to the U.N.

But still, Deirdre, what you're saying is he only can afford to lose three votes pretty much. I mean, if he gets the

...