Democrats will soon find out whether the Pa. House will stay under their control or flip to Republicans

Control of the Pennsylvania state House was still too close to call Wednesday afternoon, as ballots continued to be counted in races that could be decided by very small margins.

House Democrats hoped to expand their narrow 102-101 majority, while Republicans hoped to retake control of the state House that they controlled for more than a decade before Democrats shocked the state in 2022.

As of 3 p.m., Republicans in vulnerable districts in Delaware and Bucks Counties — Reps. Craig Williams, Joe Hogan and K.C. Tomlinson — held onto their seats, according to race calls by the Associated Press. Rep. Brian Munroe (D., Bucks) also held onto his seat in the hotly contested Central Bucks County race that Republicans spent more than $600,000 trying to flip.

Democrat Sean Dougherty claimed victory in a Northeast Philadelphia House district, but the Associated Press had not yet called the race Wednesday afternoon. Dougherty held a 500-vote lead over Republican Aizaz Gill.

Control of the state House is likely to come down to a Cambria County seat, where Democrat Rep. Frank Burns is seeking a ninth term to represent the reddening 72nd House District. Trump won the district in 2020 by 15 percentage points, and Burns used a Trump-esque playbook in attack ads painting his Republican opponent Amy Bradley as trying to bring in Afghan refugees to replace Cambria County workers.

And with control of the House down to just one or two seats, the chamber will be almost evenly divided and requiring 100% agreement of the caucus to pass any partisan bills.

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Democrats surprised the state in 2022 when they flipped the state House for the first time in 12 years with a narrow majority. Officials expected the state’s new redistricted maps, which gave Republicans a slight edge over Democrats, to make races more competitive, but didn’t expect Democrats to flip the chamber so soon.

House Democrats currently control the lower chamber by only one vote, and at times have had to lean on moderate Republicans from Bucks County to pass bills when they couldn’t get their whole membership to support them. Lawmaking halted on multiple occasions throughout the two-year legislative session because of more than a half-dozen resignations that put Democrats under their numeric majority.

Control of the state House remains a toss-up and will come down to about 10 races statewide. Republicans targeted seats held by vulnerable Democrats in other parts of the state that are leaning redder. Meanwhile, Democrats hope to pick up some of the few remaining GOP-held seats in the collar counties — like Williams’ seat as the last Republican representing parts of Delco or two Lower Bucks seats — as ones they think they can flip to maintain and expand their narrow majority.

» READ MORE: These are the Pa. House races to watch in November that will determine who takes or keeps control

Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, spent $1 million to help his party retain and expand its state House majority, and he made 20 endorsements across the state in districts Democrats hope to flip or to protect vulnerable incumbents. In his endorsements earlier this fall, Shapiro noted the Democratic priorities he and the slim Democratic majority in the state House — in concert with the GOP-controlled state Senate — had been able to pass, including an increased property tax and rent rebate for seniors, an expanded childcare tax credit, and major investments in public education to respond to a court order requiring officials to create a new school funding system.

» READ MORE: The Philly suburbs helped Democrats flip the Pa. House two years ago. Now, some seats aren’t even competitive.

House Republican leaders have said they believe Pennsylvanians should reelect a GOP majority to ensure fiscal restraint, put economic and job development to the forefront, and more Republican priorities.

In recent years, Democrats have dominated the fast-growing collar counties around Philadelphia, electing Democrats to 31 of the 39 districts in Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware, and Chester Counties.

Bucks remains an outlier in the increasingly blue Philadelphia suburbs, as the only collar county with a GOP voter registration advantage. For this reason, many of the competitive House races are in Bucks County, and Republicans represent more districts in Bucks than in any other collar county.