Republicans will maintain control of the House, AP projects, securing White House and both chambers of Congress

WASHINGTON — Republicans are projected to narrowly hold on to the House majority, according to the Associated Press, after they claimed victory in at least 218 seats.

It’s a crucial victory for Republicans, giving the party a clean sweep of Washington after they took the Senate and the White House on Election Day. It will give President-elect Donald Trump a chance to enact his preferred policy agenda, although the slim margins in both chambers could still provide for some stumbling blocks.

The final margin of victory could take a few more days shake out, as California races in particular will take time to tally as mail ballots come in. But with very few flipped seats on either side of the aisle, the House is forecast to have a Republican majority of a similar as the last Congress — a margin that gave leadership plenty of headaches (and, notably, led to a deposed speaker) as the right flank battled with more moderate members.

Democrats did manage to flip at least five seats, including three in New York state, one in California and a new seat in Alabama. Republicans, though, flipped at least seven seats, including two in Pennsylvania, one in Colorado, and three seats in North Carolina that were redistricted in their favor.

The outcome was a disappointment for Massachusetts Democrats who campaigned hard to win back the House, including Revere Representative Katherine Clark, the number two Democrat in the House. The Republicans’ victory will also deny a promotion for many of the state’s all-Democratic lawmakers, who would have been in line for powerful positions and who worked hard to help colleagues across the country win seats. It will keep Springfield Representative Richard Neal and Worcester Representative Jim McGovern as ranking members, rather than chairs, of their committees: McGovern on the House Rules Committee, which shapes legislation before it hits the floor for a vote, and Neal for the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.

Neal, though, will have a central role in what may be the marquee fight in next year’s Congress, when Trump’s 2017 tax cuts are set to expire and Congress will have to pass a new package of legislation to extend them. The federal government is also still operating under a temporary funding bill, and Congress will have to resolve federal spending this year or have that fight once Trump takes office.

The House has been governed by razor-thin majorities for the past two election cycles, and was forecast to be another close battle for 218 seats.

That narrow margin had proven vexing for Republicans in the last Congress, which began with days of voting to try to elect a speaker and then saw the first-ever eviction of a speaker less than a year later. Speaker Mike Johnson, of Louisiana, ascended to the job after weeks of infighting and appears safe to retain it after Republicans’ victory. But even with the leadership races settled, the infighting has stymied the House’s ability to legislate, with hardline conservatives blocking spending bills and at times rebelling on procedural votes to punish leadership when they feel slighted.

Trump will take office with full control of Washington, as he did in 2017. But there are some differences: In 2017, the House speaker was Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan, who clashed with Trump and had a starkly different view of conservatism. This time, Johnson is a close Trump ally with a similar political ideology.

And the Senate side will also have a new chief, after long-running Republican leader Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky announced he would step aside from his post. South Dakota Senator John Thune won the contest to succeed McConnell on Wednesday, after Trump largely stayed out of the internal race. Thune had been the number two Senate Republican since 2019 and was seen as the most establishment of the three candidates who ran to replace McConnell.

Trump struggled to get much through Congress in his first two years other than his tax package even as he held both chambers, when the Senate majority was only 52 seats, but the House majority hovered around 240 seats. Moderates balked at some of his policies, including a famous decision by the late Arizona Senator John McCain to oppose an effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. This time, Trump’s party will have at least one more Senate seat, but the House majority will be much smaller, portending more difficulty getting legislation through.

Senate Republicans, for now, have also indicated they intend to keep in place the 60-vote threshold to advance legislation, giving Democrats a firewall in the Senate against most types of policies.

The Senate margin likely will, however, give Trump an easy time confirming judges and nominees, which only require 50 votes.

Tal Kopan can be reached at tal.kopan@globe.com. Follow her @talkopan.