WASHINGTON (AP)  — Democrats have won a House majority, gaining power to investigate President Donald Trump and help shape the nation’s political agenda for the next two years.

Democrats picked up at least two dozen House seats Tuesday, capturing the 218 seats needed to break Republicans’ eight-year hold on the House that began with the tea party revolt of 2010.

While Republicans retained control of the Senate, the Democratic win in the House ends the GOP monopoly on power in Washington and opens a new era of divided government.

Democratic candidates flipped seats in a host of suburban districts outside Washington, New York, Philadelphia, Miami, Chicago and Denver, including many that were won by Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Democrats also made inroads in Trump country, winning several races dominated by white working-class voters.

House Speaker Paul Ryan says history has repeated itself as Republicans appeared likely to lose control of the House after eight years.

Ryan, who is retiring from Congress, said in a statement that the president’s party “always faces tough odds in its first midterm election,” frequently losing dozens of seats.

Ryan says he is proud of the campaign that GOP candidates ran “in a challenging political environment,” and he congratulated Democrats on winning a House majority. He also praised Senate Republicans for maintaining control of the upper chamber.

Ryan says Americans “don’t need an election to know that we are a divided nation, and now we have a divided Washington.” He urged leaders to come together and called it “an incredible honor” to lead the House the past three years.

South Carolina is sending a new Democrat to Congress for the first time in more than 25 years.

Attorney and ocean engineer Joe Cunningham beat state Rep. Katie Arrington, a Republican backed by President Donald Trump in a surprising win in a state that has become solidly Republican.

Arrington had defeated incumbent Rep. Mark Sanford in a GOP primary thanks to Trump’s backing.

Cunningham painted Arrington as a reactionary politician who would back Trump over the people in her district.

Cunningham opposed Trump’s call for oil drilling off the state’s coast, while Arrington initially supported it. She later said she was against offshore drilling, which many coastal leaders — including Republican mayors — strongly oppose as a grave threat to the state’s tourism-based economy.

Republican Steve King has won a ninth term representing northwest Iowa’s 4th Congressional District.

Voters re-elected King despite a string of controversies about comments and meetings he has held involving other candidates and groups characterized as white nationalists. King has argued that all those he met or made comments about were simply conservatives.

King defeated Democrat J.D. Scholten, a former minor league baseball player who raised more money than King and spent months crisscrossing the 39-county district.

King did little campaigning but maintained his hardline views on immigration and support of gun rights were in step with the conservative district.

Women will break the current record of 84 serving at once in the U.S. House.

With ballots still being counted across the country, women have won 75 seats and are assured of victory in nine districts where women are the only major-party candidates.

Outrage and organizing by women have defined Democratic Party politics this election cycle — from the Women’s March opposing President Donald Trump the day after he was inaugurated in January 2017 through a stream of sexual assault accusations later that year that sparked the #MeToo movement.

More than 230 women, many of them first-time candidates, were on the general-election ballots in House races.

Despite the gains, men will continue to hold the vast majority of House seats.

Democrats have picked up at least 23 House seats, putting them on track to reach the 218 needed to seize control from Republicans after eight years.

Democrats knocked off at least 17 GOP incumbents, picking up moderate, suburban districts across the county. Democrats won seats stretching from suburban Washington, New York and Philadelphia to outside Miami, Chicago and Denver. West Coast results were still coming in.

Democrat Abigail Spanberger of Virginia defeated Republican incumbent Dave Brat in suburban Richmond to give Democrats the 23rd pickup.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi is hailing ”’a new day in America.”

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi is telling Democratic lawmakers and supporters that elections are about the future and “thank you all for making the future better for all of America’s children.”

Pelosi spoke as Democrats closed in on control of the House.

Pelosi said the election Tuesday was about more than Republicans and Democrats. It was about restoring the Constitution and providing a balance to the Trump administration.

She says the election is also about stopping what she described as the GOP’s attacks on entitlement programs and the Affordable Care Act. She says Democrats will find common ground when they can and stand their ground when necessary.