Skip to content

News · Elections and voting · National (US)

RNC chair forecasts GOP majorities in November

Joe Gruters said he expects Republicans to finish the midterms with 220 House seats and 53 Senate seats.

The Ballot National DeskSeptember 24, 2026
RNC chair forecasts GOP majorities in November

Key takeaways

  • Joe Gruters expects Republicans to retain both congressional majorities.
  • He predicted 220 Republican seats in the House.
  • He predicted 53 Republican seats in the Senate.
  • The figures are projections, not election results.

Gruters sets targets for both chambers

Republican National Committee Chair Joe Gruters said Wednesday that he expects his party to retain its majorities in the House and Senate during November’s midterm elections. He predicted Republicans will hold 220 seats in the House and 53 seats in the Senate.

Gruters presented the two numbers as his expected outcomes for the party. His statement covers the overall balance of power in Congress rather than a specific House or Senate contest. No individual candidate or race was part of the prediction.

The forecast sets separate benchmarks for the two chambers. Under Gruters’s expectation, Republicans would emerge from the November elections with continued control of both the House and Senate. The totals remain projections until voters cast ballots and the results determine how many seats each party holds.

What the prediction means

The House and Senate figures should be read as Gruters’s political assessment, not as vote counts or confirmed seat totals. His remarks do not decide any contest, and the final composition of Congress will depend on the outcomes across the House and Senate elections held during the midterms.

The claim can be evaluated after those contests are completed by comparing the final Republican seat totals with the 220-seat House figure and the 53-seat Senate figure he named. It also creates two distinct measures: whether Republicans retain each majority and whether the party reaches Gruters’s specific number in each chamber.

What to watch

  • Certified House results after the November midterms
  • Certified Senate results after the November midterms
  • Whether final GOP totals match Gruters’s benchmarks

Was this useful?

Related stories