Democrats fall short as GOP wins 2 more years of House control

WASHINGTON — Republicans will command the House for two more years as Donald Trump’s astounding White House triumph helped them keep their record-size majority nearly intact.

“He earned a mandate,” said House Speaker Paul Ryan, who now faces working with a president with whom he had a turbulent relationship during the campaign.

Democrats had envisioned that voters repulsed by Trump’s comments about women and Latinos could provide potentially big election-day gains in suburban and ethnically diverse areas.

While one member of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus was defeated, several newly elected Republicans could bolster it.

Both parties’ candidates and outside groups spent nearly $1.1 billion combined on House campaigns, shy of the $1.2 billion record in 2012, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group.