Midterms 2014: GOP Gains Control of the Senate

And so it happened: Thanks to a heady combination of freed-up cash, amped-up campaigning, publicity-stoked fear and Obama fatigue, among other potent ingredients, Republicans took over the Senate on Tuesday evening. 

This means Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid hands over his title to Sen. Mitch McConnell, and it also means President Obama can get ready to face a human wall in Congress for the last two years in the White House.

Here’s how the BBC summed it up that night:

The Republican Party has won control of the Senate in the US mid-term elections, increasing its power in the final years of Barack Obama’s presidency.

The party took Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Montana, North Carolina, South Dakota and West Virginia.

Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell will lead the chamber.

The party is also set to strengthen its majority in the lower House of Representatives.

As the early results came in late on Tuesday, it became clear the Republicans had made convincing gains in the roughly one-third of the 100 Senate seats up for election.

The party retained seats in Alabama, Georgia, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Tennessee.

NPR brought word of the Senate takeover in a play-by-play report as the results rolled in.

In other midterm election news, California Governor Jerry Brown made history by winning his bid to serve a fourth term in office, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Brown hung onto his spot as that state’s top executive.

—Posted by Kasia Anderson

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