Election Day 2024 live results: Harris urges importance of accepting election results

House Speaker Mike Johnson formally launched his bid to continue serving as leader in a letter sent to GOP colleagues on Wednesday.

"I'm ready to take the field with all of you, and I am humbly asking for your support to continue leading this Conference as your Speaker. It has been the honor of my lifetime to serve with you thus far, and I look forward to playing the biggest offense of our lives. We have a country to save—and we will," Johnson said in the letter obtained by ABC News.

Johnson represents Louisiana in the House.

House GOP leadership elections will take place behind closed doors on Nov. 13.

Johnson said, "as we have planned and expected, the latest data indicates that we will also hold – and likely grow—our Republican majority in the House, even though we faced a map with 18 Biden-won seats."

ABC News has not yet projected the House majority.

It was just a little over a year ago when Republicans elected Johnson as House speaker after ousting former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

-ABC News' Lauren Peller

In a statement posted on X on Wednesday evening, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign, and said of former President Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance: "We wish them well and hope they will govern for all of us."

The statement strikes a much more neutral tone than recent comments from the Clintons. Hillary Clinton has often spoken about the prospect of a second Trump presidency in very sharp and ominous terms, including calling him "more unhinged, more unstable" in a recent CNN interview. Bill Clinton previously said in a separate recent CNN interview that it "would be a travesty if [Trump] became president again."

-ABC News' Oren Oppenheim

In a statement Wednesday night, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Vice President Kamala Harris' "historic candidacy inspired millions and her vision for a better future for all Americans will endure."

"Her advocacy on many issues -- from lower costs, more affordable housing, and a fairer tax system - will continue to have strong impacts on America and on our party," he said.

Schumer also reaffirmed Senate Democrats' commitment to "working with our Republican colleagues to deliver for the American people."

"As I’ve said time and again, in both the majority and the minority, the only way to get things done in the Senate is through bipartisan legislation while maintaining our principles -- and the next two years will be no different," Schumer said.

-ABC News' Allison Pecorin

In a statement following former President Donald Trump's electoral victory, former and future first lady Melania Trump released a statement saying Trump's presidency will "safeguard the heart of our republic," which she called "an important responsibility."

"I anticipate the citizens of our nation rejoining in commitment to each other and rising above ideology for the sake of individual liberty, economic prosperity, and security," she wrote in a post on X.

-ABC News' Lalee Ibssa, Soo Rin Kim and Kelsey Walsh