• Key insight: Democrats secured the 218 seats they needed to retake the House of Representatives Tuesday night in an historic rebuke of the president and his policies, and edged out several important members of the House Financial Services Committee in the process.
• What's at stake: Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., is likely to be chosen as Democrats' leader on the committee despite murmurs that some members may mount a challenge.

Democrats' strong showing in Tuesday's midterm elections appeared to earn them control of the lower chamber fairly handily, but the wave that they rode in on also took out several longtime Republican members of the House Financial Services Committee.

The Associated Press had called the House for Democrats late Tuesday night, though the final tally may take several days to emerge as several races remain too close to call. But besides winning a majority, Democratic challengers also beat several subcommittee leaders and even gave committee chair French Hill, R-Ark., a close call in his re-election bid.

Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., who chairs the committee's panel on capital markets, was defeated in her bid for a seventh term by veteran and businessman Fred Wellman by a margin of about five percentage points. Wagner has been a vocal member of the committee for years, having tussled with regulators during the Biden administration and ushered a bill aimed at streamlining capital formation out of the House last year.

Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, narrowly lost his reelection bid Tuesday night to Sarah Trone Garriott, a state legislator and Lutheran minister, in a race that had been rated as a toss-up for much of the election season. Nunn had not been a leading sponsor of legislation in the committee, but in his three terms in Congress had been a reliable ally of the banking industry; the American Bankers Association ran ads supporting Nunn late in the election.

Congressman Bryan Steil, R-Wisc., was also defeated Tuesday. Stiel was a leading advocate for facilitating earned wage access and had obtained assistance from the crypto industry in his re-election bid, ultimately coming up short against Democrat Mitchell Berman, a registered nurse who has worked with the Veterans Administration. 

Tuesday's Democratic wave also appears poised to claim the seat of Rep. Mike Lawler, R-New York, who has served on the committee for the past two terms. Lawler conceded his race to challenger Cait Conley, a veteran and national security official, late Tuesday night, but the Associated Press has not yet officially called that race for Conley.  

Rep. Tim Moore, R-N.C., a freshman lawmaker and former Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, also appeared headed for defeat on Tuesday, though the AP had not called that race either. Moore's opponent, Democrat Lakesha Womack, is an attorney and chief strategy officer at ASPIRE Community Capital, a technology-oriented Community Development Financial Institution. 

Read more election coverage:

• Wall Street critic Sherrod Brown heads back to Senate
• Swipe fee bill cosponsor Marshall defeated in reelection
• Roy Cooper flips bank-heavy North Carolina
• Bank advocate Andy Barr clinches Kentucky Senate seat

The GOP also lost some familiar faces to promotion rather than election defeat on Tuesday night. Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., was elected as the first Black governor of Florida, and Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., who chaired the Financial Services Committee's panel on financial institutions, won his bid to succeed former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in the U.S. Senate. Barr's house seat, however, was won Tuesday by Democrat Zach Dembo, a former Navy officer — a bellwether race that many expected would stay in Republican hands.