(#5481) Currently there are 219 House republicans and 213 House democrats

      Three House republicans are no longer in Congress, Santos, McCarthy and Johnson. So of the 222 originally elected republicans in 2022, 219 is what is left. We democrats secured 213 seats in the House in 2022 and are about to add another on February 13 if all goes well. If we democrats do fill the seat of the ousted Santos then the House membership will be 219 to 214. The other 2 special elections for McCarthy and Johnson's seats will begin on March 19. Pending the outcome of those races which appear to be republican strongholds the tally should be 221 for republicans and 214 for democrats. A 7 seat advantage but only if less than four republicans defect to vote with democrats. If the four do vote with democrats then democrats will have a majority of the vote with a 218-217 slim advantage.
     The importance of this is simple. The republicans have been caustic representatives in the House ready to burn the place down to placate their presidential frontrunner, criminal trump. So if just four sane republicans out of the 221 vote with democrats to replace the current maga speaker, the minority party for now would take control of the House speakership and control the agenda. It is a bit of a longshot but given the magnitude of the responsibilities that house republicans are currently ignoring it is not that far out of the realm of possibility. There are rumors of already signaled talks.
     I know this may sound a bit much to expect but the ability of four republicans joining democrats in order to bring some order back to the House does make a lot of sense. I would expect those four republicans or more for that matter to demand some rules that do not allow the democrats to do as they please but would instead narrow the scope to agreeable legislation that would not burn the four republicans for their patriotic attempt to keep our government from being destroyed by maga republicans. I may well be fantasizing here but in this day and age where the republican party is in league with dictators and willing to default on our democracy, thinking outside the box for solutions is as American as it gets so let's do it when the time comes!