• Democrats make small dent in GOP's edge in House

    Politico Playbook: NBC News' Andrea Mitchell, former DLC Chair Harold Ford Jr., CNBC's Jim Cramer and former RNC Chairman Michael Steele discuss the future of bipartisanship following the president's win. Politico's Mike Allen also delivers the post-Election Day Playbook.

    New this update: Latest NBC News House projections on House; Mary Bono Mack and Fortney "Pete" Stark defeated in California; Allen West refuses to concede in Florida.

     

    By James Eng, NBC News

    Updated at 1:08 p.m. ET, Nov. 7: Democrats continued to chip away at the Republican advantage in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, but the GOP was certain to retain a solid grip on the lower house of Congress.

    At 1 p.m. ET, NBC News projected a 231-191 Republican advantage in the House, with 13 races still undecided. The projection indicated that the final balance was expected to be 237 seats for the Republicans vs. 198 for the Democrats.

    If the projection hold, it would meant that Republicans would have a slightly diminished majority from the 240-190 edge that Republican enjoyed entering the election (five House seats were vacant -- two formerly GOP-held and three Democratic seats).

    The House’s Republican leaders saw the results as support from the electorate for their strong stance against increasing taxes, even for the wealthiest Americans.

    Speaking at the RNC election night headquarters, House Speaker John Boehner says the renewing of House Republican majority shows "that there is no mandate for raising tax rates."

    “The American people want solutions, and tonight they responded by renewing our House Republican majority,” House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, who ran unopposed in his re-election bid, declared Tuesday night. "With this vote, the American people have also made clear that there’s no mandate for raising tax rates. What Americans want are solutions that will ease the burdens on small businesses, bring jobs home and let our economy grow."

    “Just as in 2010, our House Republican candidates listened to the American people and rejected the Democrats' tax-and-spend agenda that threatens the American Dream,” added Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

    View House election results

    In Wisconsin, Rep. Paul Ryan, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s running mate, won re-election to his seat. In a statement Wednesday, he said he would return to Congress after spending some time with his family.

    "I am immensely proud of the campaign we ran, and I remain grateful to Gov. Romney for the honor of being his running mate," he said. "I look forward to spending some time with my family in the coming days and then continuing my responsibilities as chairman of the House Budget Committee and representative of Wisconsin's First Congressional District."

    Also re-elected was Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in California.

    President Barack Obama won re-election and Democrats were projected to retain control of the Senate, meaning that the president would have to confront a still-divided Congress in his second term. 

    Among the House races that were being closely watched either because they were in bellwether districts or because the candidates had instant name recognition:

    Minnesota
    6th District:  Former GOP presidential candidate Rep. Michelle Bachmann eked out a narrow victory over Democratic hotel businessman Jim Graves. Bachmann heavily outspent her opponent, and in her fundraising emails she has called the campaign the toughest of her life. The results backed that up. Final totals show she beat Graves by fewer than 4,000 votes out of more than 356,000 cast. See results 

    Tea party favorite Michelle Bachmann wins tight race in Minnesota

    Florida
    18th District: Freshman Republican Rep. Allen West, a former Army lieutenant colonel and prominent face of the tea party, apparently lost an extremely tight race to Democrat Patrick Murphy, a 29-year-old construction executive and political neophyte. West, who garnered headlines for insisting Obama is a Muslim and charging that scores of congressional Democrats are communists, finished about 2,500 votes behind Murphy with 100 percent of the precincts reporting. But his campaign manager, Tim Edson, said Wednesday the candidate was not conceding:

    "This race is far from decided and there is no rush to declare an outcome," Politico quoted Edson as saying. "Ensuring a fair and accurate counting of all ballots is of the utmost importance.  There are still tens of thousands of absentee ballots to be counted in Palm Beach County and potential provisional ballots across the district."

    The contest was believed to be one of the most expensive House races in history: The two sides had raised nearly $21 million as of Oct. 17, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, and super PACs supporting the candidates poured in millions more. See results

    Democrats projected to maintain control of Senate

    Pennsylvania
    12th District: In a high-spending race that helped solidify the GOP’s control in the House, Republican Keith Rothfus, an attorney and a political newcomer, upset incumbent Democratic Rep. Mark Critz, by a 52-48 margin. Critz called Rothfus and conceded shortly before 11:30 p.m. Critz won this western Pennsylvania seat in a May 2010 special election after the death of longtime Democratic Congressman John Murtha, for whom Critz worked. The campaign has been flooded with $9.9 million in spending by outside groups, more than any other House race in the nation, according to The Associated Press. See results

    Complete politics coverage from NBC News

    Iowa
    4th District: Five-term incumbent and outspoken conservative Republican stalwart Rep. Steve King defeated Democrat Christie Vilsack, wife of former Iowa governor and current U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. King had never faced a serious challenge in the heavily Republican area, but the post-Census addition of Ames made the district less conservative. With 98 percent of the votes counted, King held a 53-45 advantage. See results

    California
    15th District:     The dean of California's congressional delegation, Rep. Fortney "Pete" Stark, 80, was defeated by Republican Eric Swalwell, 31, a Dublin councilman and Alameda County prosecutor, 53 percent to 47 percent, in the redistricted 15th District. Stark was first elected to the House in 1973. See results


    36th District: GOP Rep. Mary Bono Mack was an apparent loser to emergency room physician Raul Ruiz in the newly redistricted 36th,  with 49 percent of the vote to Ruiz's 51 percent. Bono Mack has held the seat since 1998, when she won a special election to replace her late husband, Sonny Bono, half of the singing duo Sonny and Cher. Sonny Bono was killed in a skiing accident earlier that year in South Lake Tahoe. After redistricting, registered Democrats outnumbered Republican voters in the 36th, forcing Bono Mack to compete in a "blue" district for the first time. Bono Mack’s husband, Rep. Connie Mack, R-Fla., also lost his Senate race in Florida to favored Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson. See results 

    Joy and sorrow: Web reacts to President Obama's re-election

    Also in the running
    In one of the day’s more unusual House races, Republican Kerry Bentivolio, a reindeer farmer and Santa Claus impersonator, handily beat Democrat Syed Taj, a physician, in Michigan’s 11th District, according to NBC News projections. The race became wide open after Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, a five-term Republican, resigned in July after failing to produce enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.

    Not faring as well was VoteForEddie.com, a 32-year-old college Florida student who legally changed his name. VoteForEddie.com, running as an Independent, finished a distant third in Florida’s 25th District, garnering about 8 percent of the vote.

    Behind the numbers
    Republicans, running on a promise to shrink government and roll back unpopular federal policies and proposals, took control of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010, picking up a whopping 63 seats in the midterm elections. Republicans said the landslide victory was a referendum on Obama's and the then-incumbent party's performance.

    The 2012 elections were the first using new redistricting maps drawn up after the 2010 Census. Every 10 years, states redraw their congressional-seat boundaries, and redistricting favored Republicans in many areas this time around. Some moderate Democrats decided to retire rather than seek re-election in Republican-leaning districts.

    “Democrats couldn't have picked a worse year to suffer horrific losses up and down the ballot than 2010,” wrote David Wasserman in the Cook Political Report. “In effect, the GOP won the right to draw much of the political map for the next 10 years."

    More election coverage from NBCNews.com:

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  • Scenes from Caucus Day in Iowa

    Jonathan Gibby / Getty Images

    Bob DiGregorio, a supporter of Republican presidential candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, leaves a caucus training session held at the Sheraton on Jan. 3, 2012 in West Des Moines, Iowa. After months of campaigning by candidates, Iowan voters throughout the state prepare to participate in the first caucus of the 2012 presidential election.

    Rick Wilking / Reuters

    Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum is surrounded by the media after a campaign stop in Des Moines, Iowa on Jan. 3, 2012, the day of the Iowa caucus.

    Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA

    Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, flanked by staff members, greets Iowa voters at a campaign event at the Temple for Performing Arts in Des Moines, Iowa, on Jan. 3, 2012.

    Joshua Lott / Reuters

    Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann stands with her daughter, Caroline Bachmann, and Iowa's 5th congressional district U.S. Representative Steve King during a news conference in West Des Moines, Iowa, on Jan. 3, 2012.

    Jeff Haynes / Reuters

    A Newt Gingrich supporter holds two postcards of Gingrich while listening to him speak at Elly's Tea and Coffee in Muscatine, Iowa, on Jan. 3, 2012.

    Joshua Lott / Reuters

    Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul greets supporters during a campaign stop in West Des Moines, Iowa on Jan. 3, 2012.

    For the latest information from the campaign trail see our FirstRead blog.

     

  • Tears and some confessions from GOP candidates at Iowa forum

    Charlie Neibergall/AP

    Republican presidential candidate former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks during the Thanksgiving Family Forum sponsored by The Family Leader as former CEO of Godfathers Pizza Herman Cain looks on Saturday in Des Moines, Iowa.

    By NBC's Carrie Dann, Alex Moe, Andrew Rafferty and James Novogrod

    DES MOINES, Iowa -- At an emotional two-hour forum focused as much on the candidate's personal and spiritual lives as on their policies, six Republican candidates spoke at length Saturday about their faith but skirted direct discussion of misconduct by either twice-divorced Newt Gingrich or Herman Cain, who has faced allegations of sexual harassment.

    During the Des Moines forum sponsored by the Family Leader group and moderated by pollster Frank Luntz, Gingrich disclosed a time in the 1990s when he felt that he was "failing personally," even turning to the Alcoholics Anonymous handbook because he felt "truly hollow."

    "I wasn't drinking but I had precisely the symptoms of somebody who was collapsing under this weight," he said after Luntz directed candidates to "bare your soul."

    The former House speaker, who has previously disclosed that he was engaging in an extramarital affair with his current wife while prosecuting the Clinton impeachment, acknowledged Saturday that his struggles "required a great deal of pain."

    "I've been very blessed. Callista and I have a wonderful marriage," he said, going on to describe his closeness to his children. "But all of that has required a great deal of pain, some of which I have caused others, which I regret deeply. All of which required having to go to God to seek both reconciliation but also to seek God's acceptance that I had to recognize how limited I was and how much I had to depend on Him."

    Earlier in the forum, Gingrich won the biggest laugh of the night for telling Occupy Wall Street protesters to "go get a job right after you take a bath."

    In a rare moment, Cain, who typically sticks to displays of humor and defiance on the campaign trail, choked up when talking about his wife, Gloria, and the struggle he faced with cancer.

    When Cain received his diagnosis, he said, he told his wife "I can do this." She replied "WE can do this," he said of his wife of 42 years, who accompanied her husband to the forum for her first campaign appearance in Iowa this weekend.

    Cain later struggled past tears in describing one consequence of his business success. "I didn't believe that I was home enough when my kids were growing up," he said.

    The Atlanta businessman made no mention of at least four women who have accused him of sexual impropriety. He said Saturday that he believes he has experienced a "series of little failures rather than one great big disaster."

    Also shedding tears Saturday was Rick Santorum, who delivered an emotional recounting of his disabled daughter's struggles for life.  "I had seen her as less of a person because of her disability," the former Pennsylvania senator confessed when describing one moment when his daughter's life was in danger.

    Rick Perry, telling a familiar story about the academic failures that prevented him from achieving his dream of becoming a veterinarian, smiled broadly when delivering a line that could perhaps also apply to the rocky start of his once soaring campaign. 

    "If you want to see God laugh, tell him your plans," Perry said.

    The Texas governor related details of his humble biography, saying that his presence on the stage after growing up in near-poverty was "a stunning story of America." He discussed, as he did at a speech at Liberty University in September, a period of time when he felt "lost" and "too busy for God" before turning to Christ at age 27.

    The unusual format -- with the six candidates seated around a table topped with Thanksgiving accoutrements -- allowed each candidate to offer lengthy responses to questions about gay marriage, abortion, morality, and the role of faith in public life.

    While largely focused on the candidate's philosophical views, the candidates also discussed their view of the federal government through the prism of morality. 

    "The states have a right to be wrong," Rep. Ron Paul alleged, dovetailing on a back-and-forth he had with Gingrich about the meaning of "liberty." "The Constitution is a restriction on the federal government, not a restriction on the states."

    Rep. Michele Bachmann spoke about her views of the spiritual nature of the oath of office, relating a story disputed by some historians that George Washington added the words "so help me God" and kissed the Bible upon delivering them. (The Bachmann campaign pushed back via Twitter on questions about the anecdote's veracity, citing author David McCullough.)

    Bachmann also separately attacked Gingrich on his abortion record.

    Republican frontrunner Gov. Mitt Romney, along with longshot Gov. John Huntsman, was notably absent from the Iowa forum, choosing instead to conduct a fiery town hall in New Hampshire. While the other candidates declined to take shots at the absent former Massachusetts governor, moderator Frank Luntz did take a dig at Romney, noting that he was not present to respond to critiques of the individual mandate for health care, an idea included in the plan he signed into law in 2006.

    Romney’s absence was also noted by event organizer Bob Vander Plaats, who told reporters after the forum, “Romney was the only one who stiffed us.”

    “I think that’s gone with his persona, in how he’s treating Iowa, which happens to be a swing state,” Vander Plaats added. “And he wants to win the presidency -- which tells me he lacks judgment.”