President Barack Obama's Republican foes recaptured the House of Representatives in key elections Tuesday, US media projected, as voters punished Democrats amid deep anger at the sour economy.
Controlling the House will give Republicans sweeping powers over the legislative agenda in Washington and hand them the chairmanships of key committees with the power to investigate the Obama administration.
The results meant the end of Democratic Representative Nancy Pelosi's four-year tenure as the first woman US House Speaker, second in line for the US presidency behind the vice president.
Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner, a veteran politician and fierce critic of Obama, was all but certain to get the job when the new US Congress takes office in January.
Obama's foes had needed to net 39 seats to retake the chamber and easily reached that goal, US television networks said, citing exit polls, with the party due to gain at least 50 seats according to television networks.
"This is a golden opportunity for our party to focus on job number one - that is more jobs for more Americans and shifting the economy from stall to forward," said the number-two House Republican, Eric Cantor.
"It's time to produce results. Let's get America back to opportunity, responsibility and success," Cantor, who was expected to become House Majority leader, said in remarks prepared for delivery at a victory rally.
After losing key US Senate toss-ups, Republicans faced a steep uphill fight to retake that chamber, but still expected to slice deep into the Democratic majority and set the stage for superheated partisan battling until Obama's 2012 reelection bid.
Just a few hours before the first polls closed, Pelosi had implored Democrats to come to the polls, hoping the party's get-out-the-vote machine would stem a Republican tide fed by the archconservative Tea Party.
"With the early returns and the overwhelming number of Democrats who are coming out, we're on pace to maintain the majority in the House of Representatives," she said at a press conference.
Early House returns had showed some veteran Democrats in trouble, including Representative Rick Boucher in Virginia and Representative Baron Hill in Indiana, seen as potential barometers of Republican success.
In Delaware, US media forecast that Democratic candidate John Carney would win the state's lone House seat, while incumbent John Yarmuth led was projected the winner over his Republican rival in his Kentucky district.
Democratic Representative Tom Perriello, one of the few Democrats from swing districts to campaign as a strong supporter of Obama's agenda, was struggling against his Republican challenger in his Virginia constituency.