Republicans claimed the Senate majority Tuesday for the first time in eight years, riding President Barack Obama's unpopularity to victories in every part of the country.
Republican challengers ousted Democratic senators in Arkansas, Colorado and North Carolina, and took seats from retiring Democrats in four other states. Equally important, Republicans held off spirited challengers in Kentucky, Georgia and Kansas, guaranteeing they will control both chambers of Congress for Obama's final two years in office.
With Republicans retaining their majority in the House of Representatives, Obama will spend his final two years as president contending with a Congress fully controlled by opponents who have been determined to block his policies.
Democrats failed to pick up a single Republican seat, assuring the Republicans of at least 52 votes in the 100-member chamber.
The Republican Senate leader, Mitch McConnell, dispatched Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes in Kentucky after a $78 million US campaign of unrelieved negativity. Voters are "hungry for new leadership. They want a reason to be hopeful," said the man in line to become majority leader and set the Senate agenda if his party gains control.
Two-term incumbent Mark Pryor of Arkansas was the first Democrat to fall, defeated by freshman Rep. Tom Cotton. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito was the GOP winner for a Senate seat in West Virginia, the first of her party to make that claim since 1956.
Former Gov. Mike Rounds triumphed in South Dakota for still another seat currently in Democratic hands, Republican Rep. Cory Gardner defeated Sen. Mark Udall in Colorado, and Rep. Steve Daines was victorious in Montana.
Republican state lawmaker Joni Ernst was the winner over Democrat Bruce Braley in Iowa, in the battle for the seat held by longtime Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin, who is retiring. She is the first ever female senator from the state.
Ernst ran a TV ad in which she talked about castrating hogs as a farm girl. She promised to "cut pork" in Washington.
Thom Tillis, a state senator in North Carolina, defeated Democrat incumbent Kay Hagan.
A rare bright spot for Democrats was Sen. Jeanne Shaheen's victory in New Hampshire over Scott Brown, a former senator from Massachusetts.
Shelley Moore Capito applauds and sings "I Gotta Feeling" by The Black Eyed Peas after becoming the first Republican from West Virginia to win a Senate seat since the 1940s. (Tyler Evert/The Associated Press)
The total Senate count will be incomplete until Dec. 6, when a runoff takes place in Louisiana between Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu and Republican Bill Cassidy.
Obama was at the White House as voters remade Congress for the final two years of his tenure. With lawmakers set to convene next week for a post-election session, he invited the leadership to a meeting on Friday.
Nearly two-thirds of voters interviewed after casting ballots said the country was seriously on the wrong track. Only about 30 per cent said it was generally going in the right direction.
More than four in ten voters disapproved of both Obama and Congress, according to the exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and the television networks.
The shift in control of the Senate, coupled with a GOP-led House, probably means a strong GOP assault on budget deficits, additional pressure on Democrats to accept sweeping changes to the health care law that stands as Obama's signal domestic accomplishment and a bid to reduce federal regulations.
Obama's ability to win confirmation for lifetime judicial appointments could also suffer, including any Supreme Court vacancies.
House of Representatives runs red
Republicans claimed a commanding majority in the House on Tuesday, pushing their dominance to near-historic levels.
The GOP easily won the 218 seats required and was on track to match or surpass the 246 seats they held in President Harry S. Truman's administration more than 60 years ago. President Barack Obama will face an all-GOP Congress in his final two years as Republicans regained control of the Senate.
"We are humbled by the responsibility the American people have placed with us, but this is not a time for celebration," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement. "It's time for government to start getting results and implementing solutions to the challenges facing our country, starting with our still-struggling economy."
Overall, the GOP gained 11 seats and counting; Democrats just one.
U.S. President Barack Obama, shown Monday at a campaign event in Philadelphia for Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Tom Wolf, will likely face a final two years in office marked by staunch opposition and compromise. (Larry Downing/Reuters)
Obama's low approval ratings, around 40 per cent, were a drag on Democrats, as was the electorate's unease with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) threat, Ebola outbreak and job losses. Promising economic signs of a drop in the unemployment rate and cheaper gasoline failed to help the president's party, which typically loses seats in midterm elections.
Boehner raised $102 million to ensure that Republicans would tighten their grip on the House.
For Obama, a dozen House losses would be an ignominious distinction. The president, whose party lost 63 seats in 2010, would become the two-term president with the most midterm defeats, surpassing Truman's 74.
Walker, Kasich, Scott win gubernatorial races
Republicans swept the vast majority of 36 governor races across the U.S. Tuesday, holding on to control of key swing states in presidential elections and scoring upsets in several Democratic bastions.. Among the victors was Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a conservative favourite who won his third election in four years.
The victories boosted the presidential prospects of several likely Republican contenders, none more so than Walker, who became a hero to conservatives for taking on public sector unions, stripping them of nearly all collective bargaining authority. Opponents responded by trying to boot him from office, and he became the first governor in U.S. history to survive a recall election in 2012.
Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker speaks at his campaign party on Tuesday in West Allis, Wis. Walker defeated Democratic gubernatorial challenger Mary Burke. ( (Morry Gash/The Associated Press)
Walker's victory Tuesday was a blow to national Democrats and labor unions, which dumped millions of dollars into the race in an effort to derail the governor's national ambitions.
Walker told The Associated Press that any decision about a presidential run in 2016 "will have to wait" while he pursues his agenda in Wisconsin.
"The bottom line is people elected me to get the job done in Wisconsin," said Walker, who defeated Democratic businesswoman Mary Burke. "We're going to spend the next couple months putting together our legislative agenda."
In another hotly contested election, Florida's Republican Gov. Rick Scott held on to his office in the country's largest battleground state despite a strong challenge from Democrat Charlie Crist, a former Republican governor who changed parties to run for his old job.
In Florida, Scott won nearly 49 per cent of the vote compared to about 47 per cent for Crist. The close outcome underlined Florida's status as an unpredictable battleground state that will be hard-fought in the 2016 presidential election.
Another governor who has figured in the 2016 discussion, John Kasich of Ohio, sailed to victory against Democrat Ed FitzGerald to win a second term largely on a record of economic growth and shrinking unemployment. Kasich's state is also major presidential battleground, its voters neither reliably Republican nor Democrat.
In South Carolina, Republican Gov. Nikki Haley handily beat Democratic challenger Vincent Sheheen to win a second term. The victory boosts the national image of the 42-year-old daughter of Indian immigrants, who has been mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate in 2016.
In a significant upset in Maryland, Republican businessman Larry Hogan beat the state's Democratic lieutenant governor, Anthony Brown. In Democratic-leaning Massachusetts, Republican Charlie Baker became the state's first Republican governor since Mitt Romney left office in 2007, defeating the state's attorney general, Martha Coakley, who was seeking to become the state's first female governor.
In Illinois, Obama's adopted home state, wealthy businessman Bruce Rauner, who poured $26 million of his fortune into the race, ousted Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, reclaiming the governor's office for Republicans for the first time in more than a decade.
In Vermont, the state's Democratically controlled legislature will pick its next governor, after the chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, Gov. Peter Shumlin, led Republican Scott Milne but failed to top 50 per cent of the vote. State law requires governor's races to go to the Legislature if no candidate receives more than 50 per cent of the vote.
Democrats' only significant victory came in Pennsylvania, where businessman Tom Wolf ousted Republican Gov. Tom Corbett. Pennsylvania is a state long coveted by Republican presidential candidates, but a last-minute push there by Mitt Romney failed in 2012.
Former Republican Rep. Asa Hutchinson was elected governor of Arkansas more than a decade after playing a prominent role in President Bill Clinton's impeachment and trial, while Democrat Andrew Cuomo unsurprisingly got another term in New York.
Still too close to call: Alaska, Colorado and Connecticut.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
US midterm election: Republicans roll to Senate victory - CBC.ca
Dengan url
https://goartikelasik.blogspot.com/2014/11/us-midterm-election-republicans-roll-to.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
US midterm election: Republicans roll to Senate victory - CBC.ca
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
US midterm election: Republicans roll to Senate victory - CBC.ca
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar