AUGUSTA — With the re-election of Gov. Paul LePage and Republicans overtaking the Senate with what looks to be a 20-15 majority, the next two years will see significant pressure on Democrats in the House of Representatives.

Will they simply play defense against an emboldened LePage and Republican lawmakers or will they attempt to use their slim majority in the lower chamber to promote an agenda that reflects the party’s values and earns voters’ support before the 2016 election?

Based on unofficial results, Democrats won 79 seats in the House, compared with 68 Republicans. There also are four independents returning to the House who are expected to caucus with Democrats. Barring recounts that change the outcome of close races, Democrats lost 10 House seats to the GOP in Tuesday’s election. But what does it mean?

Neither party will have the numbers to ram bills through. For the past two years, Democrats have held majorities in both chambers, allowing them to pass virtually any bill that as a caucus they could all support. That is what led to LePage’s more than 180 first-term vetoes and hundreds of strict party-line votes. With mixed majorities, any bill approved by the Legislature will need bipartisan support. When it comes to LePage and Republicans advancing their own agenda, the pressure will be on House Democrats. The GOP will have to sway about six for a simple majority.

Neither party is close to having a supermajority, which is two-thirds of either chamber. That means emergency bills and veto overrides will require bipartisanship, just as they have for years running.

Does anybody see a mandate? As was the case in 2010, when Republicans won majorities in the House and Senate, and in 2012, when Democrats seized them back, a relatively tiny number of voters in select races determined who will wield the gavel in the Senate and House.

It appears that Senate Republican Leader Mike Thibodeau squeaked out a re-election victory by barely 100 votes in a district where 17,000 ballots were cast. Green Independent candidate Alice Knapp in Senate District 23 siphoned enough progressive voters away from incumbent Democratic Sen. Eloise Vitelli to give that tight Senate race to Republican Linda Baker. If those races had gone the other way, Portland Sen. Justin Alfond might be practicing his “Senate president” voice in anticipation of another two years in that role.

Conversely, Democrat Cathy Breen appears to have won a Yarmouth-area Senate seat by seven votes, and Republican Patti Gagne finished well within recount range of Democratic Rep. Nathan Libby in a Senate race to represent Lewiston.

A handful of House races also were decided by 200 or fewer votes. Eleven incumbent Democrats lost re-election bids, and three Republican lawmakers ousted in 2012 won their way back into the Legislature this year.

Despite the Maine Republican Party’s statement Wednesday that it’s eying a “long-term political shift,” the legislative results during the past three elections look more like a rapidly swinging pendulum. An evenly divided electorate — riding turnout surges that help Democrats during presidential elections and Republicans during off years — makes it more likely incumbents will be tossed out and control will keep tilting back and forth. Maine’s shifting political dynamic has a lot more to do with the vagaries of election cycles than any well-defined partisan policy mandate.

There will be changes in the committee process. The majority in each chamber appoints committee chairs, which means every committee will be co-chaired by a Republican from the Senate and Democrat from the House. Who chairs one of the Legislature’s at least 17 committees in daily hearings usually means little in terms of the outcome, though chairs carry prestige and influence in the larger Legislature. What might matter most is the subtle nature of public perception and the difference between the titles “ranking Republican” and “chairwoman.”