Republicans breathed a massive sigh of relief Wednesday after they managed to clinch a slim majority in the House of Representatives.

This came after it became apparent that no red wave materialized nationwide, and voters were unwilling to buy into their extremist candidates and election deniers.

But having the House of Representatives is nothing to sneeze at; it allows the Republicans to stall Democratic legislative agendas and launch investigations into several issues they’ve promised to look into.

So how did the Republicans celebrate? By locking arms and promising to work together to protect their constituents’ values, right?

Wrong. They immediately started fighting.

Republicans now seem to be dividing into McCarthy Republicans and MAGA Republicans, traditional conservatives versus more fringe supporters who follow Trump’s brand of Republicanism.

The MAGA Republicans don’t want Kevin McCarthy to retake his gavel as Speaker of the House and have pushed their own choices, such as election-denier Andy Biggs – who was roundly defeated in a first secret ballot.

For traditional conservatives who see the writing on the wall, the push-back from the MAGA wing is a frightening promise of a massive loss to Republicans in 2024. Because voters rejected extremist candidates in the midterms (when they had the historic best chance of winning), they will face a massive uphill battle in 2024 if the Republicans don’t rebrand and figure out where their message fell flat.

But MAGA Republicans think their candidates didn’t go far enough to the extreme – and they want the next two years to be focused on all the promises Trump has made from the wings about investigating Hunter Biden, looking into the 2020 election and other issues that don’t seem of particular interest to voters.

They will need to find a way to make a common cause quickly if they want to make the most of the next two years and convince voters that they’re most than just a party of extremists; they can get things done.