GOP Surge: Republicans Take Control of Congress

Voters sent a clear message to Democrats on election night, sending them packing in the Senate and governors mansions across the country.

Minutes after polls closed in Kentucky, Sen. Mitch McConnell was declared the winner of a closely watched race against Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes putting him in position to become Senate majority leader and setting the mood for the GOP for the night.

“For too long this administration has tried to tell the American people what’s good for them and then blame somebody else when their policies didn’t work out. Tonight Kentucky rejected that approach,” McConnell told supporters.

Republican Joni Ernst won the Iowa Senate race and Thom Tillis was declared the winner in a tight race in North Carolina against incumbent Democrat Kay Hagen.

Republicans also won Montana, Colorado, Arkansas, West Virginia and South Dakota, while holding on to a few tightly contested seats.

Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas won re-election against independent challenger Greg Orman with 53 percent of the vote to Orman’s 42 percent, with 4 percent going to a Libertarian candidate.

Georgia’s Senate seat remains in Republican hands, as David Perdue defeated Democrat Michelle Nunn to win retiring Sen. Saxby Chambliss’s seat.

Republican Cory Gardner defeated incumbent Mark Udall in Colorado, a state that President Barack Obama won twice. Udall campaigned hard on women’s issues, but overall dissatisfaction with Obama gave Gardner the edge.

In Montana, Republican Steve Daines defeated Amanda Curtis to take a Senate seat that Republicans have not held in more than a century.

Meanwhile, Democrat Jeanne Shaheen has won re-election to the U.S. Senate for New Hampshire, holding on to her seat against Republican challenger Scott Brown. The New Hampshire Senate race had been considered “too close to call” in the last few days. Shaheen was elected to the Senate in 2008.

Arkansas Republican Tom Cotton defeated incumbent Mark Pryor, and Republican senatorial candidate Shelley Moore Capito won her race in West Virginia, defeating Democrat Nataile Tennant. Capito is the first woman ever to be elected to the U.S. Senate from West Virginia.

Republican Mike Rounds took the seat for South Dakota, replacing retiring Democrat Tim Johnson.

In Louisiana, the Senate race was not decided Tuesday night. Neither incumbent Democrat Mary Landrieu nor Republican challenger Bill Cassidy won a large enough percentage of the vote to avoid a runoff election on December 6.

In Virginia, Democrat incumbent Mark Warner claimed victory over Republican challenger Ed Gillespie. With 99 percent of the precincts reporting, Warner leads by 13,000 votes, giving him 50 percent over Gillespie’s 48 percent. This is a contest that many thought Warner would easily win.

Republican Dan Sullivan  appears to have won a narrow victory over incumbent Sen. Mark Begich in Alaska, with nearly all of the precincts reporting. State election officials say about 24,000 early and absentee ballots would be counted by Nov. 11. An additional 14,000 requested absentee ballots will also be counted if returned within the next two weeks.

Meanwhile, in governors’ mansions across the nation many Democratic incumbents will spend the holiday season packing their bags. GOP candidates won governors’ races in the president’s home state of Illinois and other reliably blue states like Massachusetts and Maryland.

“Wow, what a historic night in Maryland,” Maryland Governor-elect Larry Hogan regarding his stunning victory against Democratic Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown.

It was also a big night for Scott Walker in Wisconsin, Rick Scott in Florida, and Sam Brownback in Kansas as all three Republican governors held on to their seats. Back in Washington, President Obama now has no allies in the congressional majority to push his agenda his last two years. He’ll meet Friday with congressional leaders to discuss the road forward.

Now that Republicans have a clear majority on Capitol Hill they’ll have to roll up their sleeves and get to work appeasing an electorate that’s tired of gridlock.