Riding Wave of Discontent, G.O.P. Takes Senate
Election Results: Republicans Win Senate Control With at Least 7 New Seats
Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, spoke after defeating Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Democratic candidate.
Video by AP on
Publish Date November 4, 2014.
Photo by Todd Heisler/The New York Times.
Resurgent Republicans took control of the Senate on Tuesday night, expanded their hold on the House, and defended some of the most closely contested governors’ races, in a repudiation of President Obama that will reorder the political map in his final years in office.
Propelled
by economic dissatisfaction and anger toward the president, Republicans
grabbed Democratic Senate seats in North Carolina, Colorado, Iowa, West
Virginia, Arkansas, Montana and South Dakota to gain their first Senate
majority since 2006. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, a shrewd Republican tactician, cruised to re-election and stood poised to achieve a goal he has pursued for years — Senate majority leader.
The biggest surprises of the night came in North Carolina, where the Republican, Thom Tillis,
came from behind to beat Senator Kay Hagan, and in Virginia. There,
Senator Mark Warner, a former Democratic governor of the state, was
thought to be one of the safest incumbents in his party, and instead
found himself clinging to the narrowest of leads against a former Republican Party chairman, Ed Gillespie.
Those
contests were measures of how difficult the terrain was for Democrats
in an election where Republicans put together their strategy as a
referendum on the competence of government, embodied by Mr. Obama.
House seats where Democrats had fought off Republican encroachment for years were finally toppled. Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, was easily re-elected in Wisconsin, a state that voted twice for Mr. Obama. In Florida, Gov. Rick Scott, once considered endangered, finished the night on top. And states that had seemingly been trending Democratic, like Colorado and Iowa, fell into Republican hands.
With
at least a nine-seat gain and most likely more, House Republicans will
have close to 245 seats, the largest Republican majority since the
Truman administration.
“Barack
Obama has our country in a ditch, and many of his lieutenants running
for the Senate were right there with him,” said Reince Priebus, chairman
of the Republican National Committee. “The punishment is going to be
broad, and it’s going to be pretty serious.”
The
breadth of the Republican victories also reset the political landscape
ahead of the 2016 presidential campaign. And it left Mr. Obama with a
decision to make: Will he move toward Republicans in his final years in
areas of common interest, such as tax reform and trade, or will he dig
in and hope Republican overreach will give his party a lane for a
comeback?
“Just
because we have a two-party system doesn’t mean we have to be in
perpetual conflict,” vowed Mr. McConnell, in a victory speech.
White
House officials accepted the overture and said Mr. Obama had invited
the bipartisan leadership of Congress to the White House on Friday.
For
Republicans, the victories piled up, winning not only Senate Democratic
seats they were expected to take — Montana, West Virginia, South Dakota
and Arkansas — but also in states that were supposed to be close.
Representative Cory Gardner, a Republican, crushed Senator Mark Udall in Colorado.
In Georgia, the Democrat Michelle Nunn, daughter of former Senator Sam
Nunn, was widely expected to force David Perdue, a Republican
businessman, into a runoff for the Senate seat of Saxby Chambliss, a
retiring Republican. Instead, Mr. Perdue won more than half the vote to take the race outright.
Credit Eric Thayer for The New York Times
And
for Democrats, it could get worse. Votes were still being tallied in
Alaska, where Senator Mark Begich, a Democrat, was trying to hold back
the wave. Senator Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana was able to force her
strongest Republican foe, Representative Bill Cassidy, into a Dec. 6 runoff. But the combined vote of the top two Republicans in the race easily eclipsed hers.
“I
think it’s a message from the American people about their concern about
the direction of the country, and the competency of the current
administration,” said Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, vice chairman of the
National Republican Senatorial Committee. “Most people have voted to end
the dysfunction and to get back to legislating on issues that will help
them and their families, and I think that’s something that both parties
need to listen to.”
One bright spot for Democrats came in New Hampshire, where Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the Democratic incumbent, fended off Scott Brown,
the former Republican senator from Massachusetts, according to
projections by The Associated Press. In Pennsylvania, Tom Wolf, a
Democrat and political novice, easily defeated the Republican governor,
Tom Corbett.
And
in the panhandle of Florida, Gwen Graham, daughter of a former
Democratic senator and governor, defeated Representative Steve
Southerland, a Tea Party favorite.
But
those high notes were swamped by the lows for the president’s party. In
Arkansas, Representative Tom Cotton, a freshman Republican and an Iraq
War veteran, defeated Senator Mark Pryor, despite the efforts of former
President Bill Clinton.
In
Colorado, Mr. Udall tried to replicate the storied ground game that
helped propel his Democratic colleague, Senator Michael Bennet, to an
unexpected victory in 2010. He was not even close, and drew further
criticism for running a campaign that some felt was too focused on
abortion rights and contraception.
And
in West Virginia, Representative Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican,
won the Senate seat long held by Jay Rockefeller, a Democrat, to become
that state’s first female senator and the first Republican elected to
the Senate from West Virginia since 1956. In Iowa, Joni Ernst also made
history by becoming the first woman to be elected in that state’s
congressional delegation.
Two
years after handing Democrats broad victories, voters again seemed to
be reaching for a way to end Washington inertia. Yet the results on
Tuesday may serve only to reinforce it. Voters appeared unsure of just
what they wanted, according to surveys. Among those who voted for a
Democrat, only one out of eight expressed an unfavorable opinion of the Democratic Party. Republican voters were more conflicted; among those who voted Republican, one of four viewed the party unfavorably.
Mr.
Obama is left with the prospect of finding a new path to work with
Republicans, something for which he has shown little inclination, and
Republicans must find a way to demonstrate they are more than the party
of “no.”
Even though a record $4 billion poured into the election
— from the campaigns, parties and outside groups for advertising and
other candidate support — the money did little to stir enthusiasm as the
campaign set a more dubious mark for its low levels of voter interest.
For
their part, Democrats were hindered by their inability to persuade
members of the coalition that delivered the White House to Mr. Obama —
young voters, women and minorities — to turn out at levels seen in
presidential elections. Decisions like Mr. Obama’s delay of executive
action on behalf of illegal immigrants also angered crucial
constituencies.
Even the president conceded the steep climb his allies faced.
“This
is possibly the worst possible group of states for Democrats since
Dwight Eisenhower,” Mr. Obama told a Connecticut public radio station on
Tuesday. “There are a lot of states that are being contested where they
just tend to tilt Republican.”
Democratic
midterm losses during the Obama presidency now rival those of both
Richard M. Nixon in 1974 and Bill Clinton in 1994 as the most
destructive to his party’s political standing in Congress in the post-World War II
era. It was a stunning reversal for the president, who was the first
Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt to twice win a majority of the
national vote.
“The
top issue is not jobs and the economy; it’s ending gridlock in
Washington,” said Mr. Portman. “Second, there is a desire to hold the
administration accountable for incompetence on issues like ISIS and
Ebola. I don’t think those goals are inconsistent.”
With
the political climate and the electoral map playing to their decided
advantage, Republicans were determined not to relive the elections of
2010 and 2012, when infighting between establishment Republicans and Tea
Party insurgents damaged the party’s brand and elevated candidates who
could not win.
From
the beginning, party officials decided to take sides when fierce
primary challenges emerged. The party establishment crushed challengers
to Mr. McConnell in Kentucky, and to Senators Lindsey Graham in South
Carolina and Lamar Alexander in Tennessee.
The
establishment also sent reinforcements to help Senator Thad Cochran eke
out a runoff victory against a Tea Party firebrand in Mississippi;
cleared the Republican field for Mr. Gardner in Colorado; and backed
winning primary candidates in Iowa, North Carolina, New Hampshire and
Alaska.
Democrats tried to distance themselves from the president’s health care law
and economic policies, despite signs that both may be working. In
Colorado, Mr. Udall relied on the playbook that propelled his Colorado
colleague and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chairman, Senator
Michael Bennet, to victory in 2010, speaking almost exclusively about
abortion rights and contraception. That cost him the endorsement of The
Denver Post, which castigated him for an “obnoxious, one-issue
campaign.”
Lost was Mr. Udall’s work in the Senate opposing Mr. Obama’s policies on security surveillance and privacy.
In
Kentucky, Alison Lundergan Grimes, considered a strong challenger to
Mr. McConnell, lost some support when she refused to say whether she
voted for Mr. Obama, and ran a risk-averse campaign.
But
mainly, Democrats were working off a map heavily tilted toward
Republicans in states like West Virginia, South Dakota, Montana,
Arkansas and Alaska, in a year when disengaged, frustrated voters and
Mr. Obama’s low approval ratings were inevitably going to be a
millstone.
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