In the weeks after Democrats lost their House majority in 2022, party leaders in New York – the epicenter of the implosion – jockeyed hard to deflect blame.

Donald Trump won the presidency (again). Republicans won the Senate. But there’s one more big political prize to be awarded after Tuesday’s election: the House of Representatives, which could still break either way depending on what happens in the roughly 28 races that remain too close to call as of Thursday afternoon.