Boehner: GOP has 1 in 3 chance of losing House

Speaker John Boehner believes his Republican Party will keep the U.S. House majority after the November elections, but he also candidly gives Democrats a chance to retake power.

"I would say that there is a two in three chance that we win control of the House again," Boehner told Fox News, in an interview that aired this morning. "But there's a one in three chance that we could lose. And I'm being myself, frank, we've got a big challenge and we've got work to do,"

Republicans currently hold 242 House seats and Democrats have 190. There are three vacancies, all of them seats previously held by Democrats.

That means Democrats need a net gain of 25 seats to win the majority. Boehner pegs some of his party's challenges to 89 freshmen who are running for re-election for the first time and 50 GOP members in what he calls tough races.

Additionally, he says 18 GOP-held seats now in California, New York and Illinois are "pretty vulnerable" in part because "we're not likely to do well at the top of the ticket" in those states.