Just minutes after polls closed on Election Day, political pundits and TV networks had called a handful of lopsided races on the east coast, projecting them for Democrats. While Virginia and North Carolina grappled with a close presidential vote that was too close to call early on in the evening, Democrat Jim Warner soundly defeated Republican Mark Warner for one of Virginia’s Senate seats and Democrat Kay Hagan ousted Republican incumbent Elizabeth Dole in North Carolina. Meanwhile, former New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen added on to Democratic wins by beating Republican incumbent John Sununu in the Granite State.
In the Mountain West, two Democrats surnamed Udall made a one-two punch in neighbors Colorado and New Mexico, two states that also voted for Obama after going for Bush in 2004. Tom Udall grabbed a New Mexico seat from Republican Pete Domenici and Mark Udall upended Republican Robert Schaffer in Colorado.
The voices of the electorate couldn’t have been more clear. Jim Warner and Tom Udall won by almost 3-to-2 margins, and Republican stars Dole and Sununu were outvoted by almost double-digit percentage points.
The Democrats’ five-seat gain, with other contests still too close or too early to call in Georgia, Minnesota, and Oregon, comes in an election year that couldn’t have been more auspicious for them. With a faltering economy and largely unpopular incumbent President, Republicans across the nation suffered as voters punched in ballots for Democrats in a rejection of the Grand Old Party.
But the Republicans held on to a key seat in Kentucky, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell surviving his contest against Democrat Bruce Lunsford. McConnell’s win underscores Democrat attempts to reach 60 seats and tripped up what would have been a monumental upset had Lunsford won.
With McConnell’s win, and Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss leading by Democratic challenger Jim Martin by large margins in Georgia with 90% of precincts reporting, Democrats likely won’t see the 60 Senate seats that would grant them unprecedented power in not only the Senate, but also for Congress and President-elect Obama. Democrats, who now have 56 seats in the Senate, are poised to end up with 57 to 59 seats.
At a election party in Washington D.C., Democratic leaders of the Senate celebrated with predicted gains of Congressional seats. “It looks like we’re going to increase our majorities in the House… and in the Senate,” said Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. “Tonight the Americans people have called for a new direction.”
But with a new direction comes new responsibility, said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, stressing bipartisanship. The election was “not a mandate for a party but a mandate for change,” he said, “Tonight, one journey begins … to make the country a much better place.”
Hungry for more blue Senate seats, Democratic New York Senator Chuck Schumer pronounced after the party picked up five seats from Republicans: there was “more to come.”
