House leadership positions remained unchanged after Tuesday’s election with both Republican Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana and Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York winning reelection to their seats.

Top House races were focused in New York and in California, where Democrats are trying to claw back some of the 10 or so seats where Republicans have made surprising gains in recent years with star lawmakers who helped deliver the party to power.

Other House races are scattered around the country in a sign of how narrow the field has become. Only a couple of dozen seats are being seriously challenged, with some of the most contentious in Maine, the “blue dot” around Omaha, Nebraska, and in Alaska.

In New York, Democrat John Mannion defeated an incumbent Republican in a central New York congressional district that includes the city of Syracuse, delivering Democrats a long- coveted prize in an area of the state where they struggled in the past decade.

Mannion, a state senator and former teacher, defeated U.S. Rep. Brandon Williams, who was seen as one of the most endangered Republicans in the House. Williams was among of several first-term Republicans running for reelection in New York districts won by Democratic President Joe Biden.

Williams had won his seat by a very narrow margin, and this year his district was redrawn to add a more liberal college town and exclude some rural areas where he had garnered support. That forced him to campaign in a district where voters favored Biden by double digits in 2020.

New Yorkers were expected to play a role Tuesday in determining control of the U.S. House as Republicans cling to suburban seats they won two years ago by seizing on fears of crime, and Democrats try to claw them back by warning that a right-wing Congress might ban abortion.

Democrats also held on to a critical seat in the Hudson Valley, with U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan fending off Republican challenger Alison Esposito. Even as he celebrated his victory, Ryan, an Army veteran, acknowledged in a speech to supporters that the early election returns had left many Democrats in the room on edge.

“I know everybody is anxious right now, I’m anxious right now, but to a certain degree all you can control is what’s in your community,” he said.

If everything went their way, Democrats had hoped to pick off a handful of Republican incumbents in congressional races on Long Island and in the Hudson River Valley, as well as the central New York district Mannion won on Tuesday.

The slew of competitive elections underscore the hidden political complexity of New York, which is associated with Democrats like Jeffries and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez but has also given rise to Republican stars like U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, the chair of the House Republican Conference. Ocasio-Cortez and Stefanik both held on to their seats Tuesday.

Speaker Johnson became speaker a little more than a year ago after eight Republicans joined with Democrats in booting Kevin McCarthy from the job.

The social conservative inherited many of the same troubles that plagued his predecessor when it comes to unifying the conference. He has had to rely on Democratic votes to keep the federal government open and needed their help to prevent the kind of mutiny that toppled McCarthy.

Johnson tied his political fortunes to Trump, showing up at the latter’s hush-money trial in New York and embracing his claims of political persecution.

Johnson will be favored to remain as speaker if House Republicans maintain their majority, but could face a serious challenge as the Republican leader should the Democrats take control of the chamber.

Jeffries succeeded Rep. Nancy Pelosi as the lead House Democrat after Republicans gained control of the chamber in the 2022 mid-terms and Democrats looked for a generational change in leadership.

Jeffries made sure Democrats delivered the votes needed to prevent a federal default and to subsequently keep the government open. But he declined to provide Kevin McCarthy with the Democratic votes he needed to stay on as speaker when eight members of the GOP revolted against McCarthy.

If Democrats are able to gain the House majority, he would almost assuredly be elected the next House speaker.

In Ohio, Rep. Jim Jordan, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a Donald Trump loyalist, won reelection to a 10th term in the House representing a conservative district.

Jordan spent the run-up to the election campaigning for Republicans across the country. Many see his activities as a shadow race of sorts to become GOP leader, particularly if it loses the majority and members seek a fresh start.

Jordan denies he’s running for any leadership job. He made an unsuccessful bid to become speaker when eight Republicans joined with Democrats in ousting then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Trump endorsed Jordan, but more centrist Republicans viewed him as too extreme and objected to rewarding someone on the party’s right flank after some had helped oust McCarthy.

In Delaware, state Sen. Sarah McBride won election to the U.S. House on Tuesday and will become the first openly transgender person to serve in Congress.

McBride easily defeated Republican John Whalen III in the race for Delaware’s lone House seat. Whalen is a retired construction company owner and former state trooper who ran a shoestring campaign in his first bid for public office.

McBride, meanwhile, has established a national profile as an LGBTQ activist and raised more than $3 million in campaign contributions from around the country. She achieved national recognition at the 2016 Democratic National Convention as the first openly transgender person to address a major party convention in the United States.

After scoring an easy Democrat primary win in September, McBride said she was not running for Congress to make history, but instead “to make historic progress for Delawareans.”

Democrats have held Delaware’s U.S. House seat since 2010. The seat was left open last year after Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester opted to run for the U.S. Senate spot being vacated by fellow Democrat Tom Carper.

Jeffries, in line to make history as the first Black speaker if his party wins control, told The Associated Press during a recent campaign swing through Southern California that Democrats were “in striking distance in terms of taking back the House.”

But Johnson, drawing closer to Trump, predicted Republicans would keep “and grow” the majority.