ABOUT LAST NIGHT: The big picture
President Barack Obama will hold a news conference at 2:50 ET to discuss election results. We’ll also hear from the leaders of the RNC, the NRCC and the NRSC at noon.
From one of us(!), summing up the Republican gains: “Maybe don’t call it wave; call it a political typhoon.”
The Democratic base just didn’t show up the way the party needed them to, writes one of us(!)
The New York Times midterm lede: “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.” And its headline re: the president: “President Obama Left Fighting for His Own Relevance.”
The Washington Post’s wide-ranging “How they did it” piece, from Phil Rucker and Robert Costa, includes nuggets on Mitch McConnell’s directions from behind the scenes, fault lines among Democratic campaign leaders, Scott Brown’s must-have list before getting into the campaign, the Chris McDaniel oppo file, and more.
From the AP: “In the rosiest of scenarios, McConnell and Obama can look for common ground in areas where their parties have overlapping interests: overhauling the nation's complicated tax code, repairing crumbling roads and bridges, and inking free-trade agreements with the European Union and Asia-Pacific nations."
The Washington Post’s Dan Balz calls the night “far worse than any [Democrats] had feared.” MORE: “Fundamentals favored the Republicans, from the traditional midterm advantage for the party that does not hold the White House to the low regard in which voters held the president. Added to that was a Senate map that was heavily tilted in favor of the GOP, so much so that it was always possible for Republicans to capture control simply by winning states carried by GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney in 2012.”
Ballot measures to legalize the use of recreational marijuana succeeded in Oregon, Alaska and the District of Columbia. More on ballot measures – including big wins for minimum wage and the rejection of two measures that opponents said would ban abortions -- from the Associated Press here.
ABOUT LAST NIGHT: Congressional control
ALASKA: Dan Sullivan appears to holds an “insurmountable lead” in the Senate race with all of Alaska’s precincts reporting, but Mark Begich has not conceded, writes the Alaska Dispatch News. NBC News has not projected a winner in this race.
COLORADO:The Denver Post notes in its Senate story lead that Cory Gardner is the first challenger to defeat an incumbent senator in Colorado in 36 years.
IOWA: The Des Moines Register’s analysis: “Democrats are blue, but Iowa is red-violet”
GEORGIA: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Republican David Perdue, a businessman who was virtually unknown in political circles just 18 months ago, will be Georgia’s next United States senator.”
KENTUCKY: Mitch McConnell tells POLITICO: “To be perfectly frank with you, I was never worried about getting beat in the primary, but we wanted to win convincingly. I had the additional responsibility, I felt, in trying to correct mistakes we have made in 2010 and 2012 by not involving ourselves in primaries and not guaranteeing we have the most electable candidates.”
KANSAS: The Kansas City Star writes of Pat Roberts’ 10-point margin over Greg Orman: “Republicans were not surprised by Roberts’ victory, but they didn’t expect such a healthy margin. Ten days before the election, they believed the race was essentially tied. After the results, they believed last-minute ads and campaign appearances swung undecided voters to their side.”
LOUISIANA:The Times-Picayune calls Mary Landrieu “a survivor” -- but notes the spotlight on the state’s December runoff won’t be nearly as bright without Senate control at stake.
NEW HAMPSHIRE: The Union Leader writes om the “roller-coaster” of a vote count that ended in a win for Jeanne Shaheen.
NORTH CAROLINA: The Charlotte Observer looks back at Thom Tillis’ meteoric rise. “Tillis’ victory gave Republicans control of the Senate and capped one of the fastest rises in N.C. politics for a man who, just eight years ago, was a town commissioner in Cornelius.”
SOUTH DAKOTA: The lead of the Mike-Rounds-wins story in the Argus Leader sums up not just this race, but the whole cycle: “After all the fuss, it wasn't even close.”
VIRGINIA: Where we’re at in Virginia, from the Richmond Times-Dispatch: “Sen. Mark R. Warner, D-Va., is maintaining a lead of about 12,000 votes over Republican challenger Ed Gillespie Wednesday morning with all but three precincts reporting … Democrats claimed victory late Tuesday but Gillespie has not conceded in the race that was closer than expected.”
ABOUT LAST NIGHT: The governors
ALASKA: At this hour, per the Alaska Dispatch News: “Independent gubernatorial candidate Bill Walker held a slim lead over incumbent Republican Gov. Sean Parnell in Tuesday’s general election, but the outcome was far from certain even as the last of the state’s far-flung precincts reported their tallies … If Walker holds his lead, he and Mallott would make Alaska history by becoming the first nonpartisan ticket elected to the state’s top executive offices.”
COLORADO:The Denver Post writes that John Hickenlooper is poised to hold on to his seat. “Ten hours after the polls closed, Hickenlooper rebounded from an early deficit to take the lead over Republican rival Bob Beauprez. With 92 percent of the ballots counted, the Democratic incumbent was at 48 percent and Beauprez was at 47.3 percent … Still, Secretary of State Scott Gessler said there was a chance the race would go into overtime.”
FLORIDA: The Miami Herald: “Bolstered by a $100 million campaign and a stronger economy, Gov. Rick Scott overcame his own political liabilities and a fierce challenge from Democrat Charlie Crist on Tuesday as he won a second term that solidified Republican control of the state … Scott, who turns 62 next month, becomes only the second Republican governor in state history, along with Jeb Bush, to win back-to-back terms. In one respect, he’ll be even more powerful than Bush because Republicans on Tuesday won super-majority control of the Florida House. The GOP also controls the state Senate.”
KANSAS: The Kansas City Star writes that Sam Brownback’s “conservative revolution triumphed” with his Tuesday night win.
MAINE: Writes the Portland Press Herald of Gov. Paul LePage’s reelection win: “Written off by some pundits when the campaign began over a year ago, the governor weathered a full-throated challenged by the Maine Democratic Party, which cleared the field of primary challengers for Michaud while aligned interest groups spent millions boosting his candidacy in the most expensive gubernatorial race in state history.”
MARYLAND: The Baltimore Sun calls Larry Hogan’s win “a stunning upset,” noting his “shoe-string campaign.” MORE: “The governor's race offered voters a sharp contrast between Hogan's laser focus on economic issues and Brown's broad pledge to create "a better Maryland for all Marylanders."
WISCONSIN: The Journal Sentinel: “Walker's trio of victories in this pale blue state are already firing speculation about whether he will seek the GOP presidential nomination in 2016. The governor's victory speech stoked those fires by focusing on the strengths of America as much as those of Wisconsin and by aiming his attacks at Washington, D.C. His ever-present foil from the campaign trail — the liberal city of Madison — was absent from the speech at State Fair Park in West Allis.”