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Former Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) has always been unafraid to hold positions that aren't widely shared by his party. Tonight, with the GOP likely to take over the Senate, the elder Paul threw caution--and concerns about the political future of his son, presumed presidential hopeful Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)--to the wind and just told shared how he felt:
Looks like big Republican win tonight. Power shift? Yes. Philosophy shift? No!
- Ron Paul (@RonPaul) November 5, 2014
Republican control of the Senate = expanded neocon wars in Syria and Iraq. Boots on the ground are coming!
- Ron Paul (@RonPaul) November 5, 2014
-- Akbar Shahid Ahmed
After winning a special election to replace Rep. Mel Watts (D-N.C.) earlier this year, Democrat Alma Adams on Tuesday became the 100th woman in Congress.
Adams is the only African American woman in North Carolina's Congressional delegation. Her campaign was supported by EMILY's List, a progressive PAC dedicated to electing women who support abortion rights.
'Alma Adams is a trailblazer and champion for women and families who is now poised to make history as the 100th woman serving in Congress,' said Stephanie Schriock, president of EMILY's List. 'Working families need leaders like Alma, who will unapologetically fight to protect women's reproductive healthcare access and economic security. And with the help of the EMILY's List community -- now more than three million members strong -- Alma is on her way to igniting change in Congress.'
-- Laura Bassett
Arkansas Republican Rep. Tom Cotton's victory over incumbent Sen. Mark Pryor (D) could be bad news for the longstanding link between farm subsidies and food stamps.
During the campaign, Pryor made a big deal out of Cotton's vote against the traditional farm bill, which for decades has passed Congress thanks to an 'I scratch your back, you scratch mine' deal between urban and rural lawmakers. Cotton stood firm, defending his vote and arguing that farm subsidies and food stamps should be handled separately.
Cotton was one of a small number of conservative House Republicans who attacked the business-as-usual approach to agriculture and nutrition policy. Their strategy ultimately failed when Congress passed a regular farm bill, but Cotton's win shows his vote against the farm bill wasn't the political weakness in rural America that Pryor had hoped.
-- Arthur Delaney
Former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell joined HuffPost Live to discuss whether or not Harry Reid's strategy should change if the Democratic party loses the Senate.
HuffPost's Dana Liebelson and Ryan Reilly report:
In June 2013, the Supreme Court struck down the part of the Voting Rights Act that prevented certain states with a history of discrimination from enacting changes to their voting process without permission from the federal government or a panel of judges.
Following that decision, voting rights advocates pushed for Congress to pass legislation preventing states from making potentially discriminatory changes to election laws that could prevent citizens from casting their votes. The initiative even gained limited Republican support. But Congress failed to act.
The ramifications of congressional inaction are now being felt not only by Texas voters, but by residents of a number of other states as well.
Read more here.
HuffPost's Ryan Grim reports:
With midterm election returns beginning to come in, Republicans are expanding their majority in the House of Representatives and picking up seats in the Senate, as voters register their anger with the direction and structure of the economy.
Attitudes measured in exit polls were negative in the extreme, with eight in 10 saying they were dissatisfied by the performance of Congress and 54 percent giving the thumbs down to President Barack Obama. A potent majority was unhappy with the U.S. economic system itself, with nearly two-thirds of voters saying it's unfair and favors the wealthy and only 32 percent saying it's fair to most people, a shift even since 2012. (One percent deemed the economy 'excellent.')
Insecurity and fear, leading motivators of voters, have been in abundant supply over the past several years, exacerbated over the summer by the sudden rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and an Ebola outbreak that has captivated world attention.
Ahead of the election, John Cornyn of Texas, the number two Republican in the Senate and the next majority whip if the GOP takes control, laid out the politics in crisp terms. 'It's not as though people have all a sudden fallen in love with Republicans,' Cornyn said. 'It's just a loss of confidence in the administration. It's national security, personal security and job security. People are on edge. And that's not good if you're the party in power.'
For all of New Hampshire Republican Senate candidate Scott Brown's rhetoric against immigration reform, a majority of voters in the state actually support allowing undocumented immigrants to earn legal status, according to exit polls.
Brown made immigration key to his campaign against incumbent Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, and his statements were nearly all negative. He warned that undocumented immigrants could bring Ebola and terrorism across the border, and went after Shaheen for supporting immigration reform that passed the Senate last year.
According to the exit polls as of this writing, 56 percent of New Hampshire voters think undocumented immigrants should be offered a chance to apply for legal status, including 26 percent of Brown supporters. Forty percent of New Hampshire voters said undocumented immigrants should be deported -- 27 percent of Shaheen supporters and 73 percent of Brown supporters said so.
Only 14 percent said immigration was the most important issue facing the country.
-- Elise Foley
Shortly after the polls closed in Massachusetts, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) emailed supporters 'a heartfelt thank you' for 'fighting for what we believe in.' Warren wasn't running, but she traveled all over the country and campaigned for Democratic candidates and incumbents running for re-election. From her message:
In 2012, you defied the odds, helping a first-time candidate raise money from more small donors than any Senate campaign in the history of this country. You've always had my back, and I've worked hard to always have yours.
But here's what I'm most proud about from that historic campaign: You didn't stop when the polls closed on November 6, 2012. You knew that this was never just about me - it's about fighting for what we believe in.
It's about standing up to the big banks when they break the law, and fighting to help our students getting crushed with debt. It's about protecting and expanding Social Security for our seniors, raising the minimum wage, and making sure women get equal pay for equal work and access to birth control.
It's also about fighting for candidates who will stand by our side in the U.S. Senate. This election cycle, our grassroots supporters pulled together to help raise an incredible million for Democratic campaigns and committees across the country. You raised critical funds that our candidates needed if they were going to have a fighting chance against Karl Rove, the Koch Brothers, and all those Super PAC attack ads.
Read her full email here.
Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) has won her Senate race, and will replace retiring Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.). There's are other opportunities - most notably in Iowa (where Joni Ernst is a favorite to win) and in Georgia (where Michelle Nunn is running a competitive race) -- to add to the twenty women who currently sit in the Senate. On the other hand, some of the incumbents -- New Hampshire's Jeanne Shaheen, Louisiana's Mary Landrieu, and North Carolina's Kay Hagan -- are fighting for their political lives tonight.
Can any significance be attached to the number of women in the Senate? Is something lost if their membership decreases? To answer that, cast your mind back to the government shutdown in 2013. As The New York Times' Jonathan Weisman and Jennifer Steinhauer reported:
In a Senate still dominated by men, women on both sides of the partisan divide proved to be the driving forces that shaped a negotiated settlement. The three Republican women put aside threats from the right to advance the interests of their shutdown-weary states and asserted their own political independence.
[...]
The women are hardly in lock step politically. But their practice of meeting regularly and working on smaller bills together, even in a highly polarized Congress, set the stage for more significant legislation. Ms. Ayotte and Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire, hosted an informal get-together for women in the Senate last Monday evening.
'I don't think it's a coincidence that women were so heavily involved in trying to end this stalemate,' Ms. Collins said. 'Although we span the ideological spectrum, we are used to working together in a collaborative way.'
The Huffington Post's Laura Bassett reported at the time that many prominent male senators were quick to praise their female counterparts:
Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) said on Wednesday afternoon that their female colleagues can take most of the credit for driving the compromise that is expected to temporarily reopen the U.S. government and raise the debt ceiling before Thursday's deadline.
'Leadership, I must fully admit, was provided primarily from women in the Senate,' McCain said after the bipartisan deal was announced.
Pryor said that people sometimes like to joke about women in leadership, but he is a huge fan of his female colleagues after watching them negotiate. 'The truth is, women in the Senate is a good thing,' he said. 'We're all just glad they allowed us to tag along so we could see how it's done.'
If the future portends a return to budget brinksmanship, we may come to regret losing some of the incumbent women senators.
-- Jason Linkins
NH AG: Hanover polling place evacuated after fire alarm. People may have voted after poll closed. Poss. emergency court hrg tonight. via
- WMUR TV (@WMUR9) November 5, 2014
The polls in Georgia closed at 7 p.m. ET, but Democratic Senate candidate Michelle Nunn planned ahead: she told her supporters all they had to do was get in line before 7 and stay there till they cast their vote. Now, she's sending them extra support:
Thank you so much for staying in line, #GA. This is how we make a difference. Every vote counts! #StayInLineGA #GApol http://ift.tt/1usksvB
- Michelle Nunn (@MichelleNunnGA) November 5, 2014
The Georgia Senate race has grown significantly tighter in recent days and is being closely watched as one potential bright spot in an otherwise bleak election for Democrats.
HuffPost Pollster, which is tracking 51 polls on the race from 19 pollsters, had Nunn 4 points behind Republican candidate David Perdue as of 1 day ago. Observers have noted that the race will go to a run-off if the winner receives less than 50% of the vote -- which would mean a wait not for hours until all votes are cast tonight but for months until the run-off election on January 6.
-- Akbar Shahid Ahmed
HuffPost's Jason Linkins and Zach Carter discuss Mark Udall's chances of winning the Senate race in Colorado and how a loss could affect the possibility of reforms on government surveillance.
Republicans hold their majority in the House, @NBC and @Reuters project http://t.co/x8zvDVQksC #election2014
- HuffPost Politics (@HuffPostPol) November 5, 2014
One of the questions for Democrats in close Senate races tonight: can they outperform President Barack Obama's lagging ratings in their states?
In New Hampshire, the answer may be yes. Early exit polls show Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) taking 98 percent of the vote against Scott Brown among voters with a positive view of the Obama administration, but also 26 percent of the vote among those with a negative view of the administration.
Similarly, while voters who were 'satisfied' or 'angry' about the Obama administration were split along party lines, the 30 percent of voters who described themselves as 'dissatisfied but not angry' with the Obama administration split 56 for Brown, and 44 for Shaheen.
-- Ariel Edwards-Levy
Republican Ed Gillespie is leading Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) 52.0 % to 45.5 % with 40 percent of precincts reporting, according to the Associated Press.
--Sam Levine
Just three weeks ago, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka was insisting that Alison Lundergan Grimes would manage to topple Senate minority leader and longtime foil to the labor federation Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). The labor leader had just barnstormed through Louisville, Owensboro, Paducah and elsewhere on the challenger's behalf.
'I'm telling you,' Trumka told reporters. 'I've been on the ground.'
In the end, the Kentucky Senate race was called in McConnell's favor by dinnertime on Tuesday, a harbinger of what could be one very long night over at AFL-CIO headquarters.
But in an immediate statement on the election results, Trumka remained just as critical of McConnell's record in the Senate as he had been out on the hustings -- and just as boosterish as he had been on Grimes' future:
'Throughout the campaign, Mitch McConnell struggled to say why you ought to vote for him because his record is dismal. It doesn't support Kentuckians. It supports rich corporations who bankrolled him to his fourth decade in Washington. The truth is that Kentuckians don't support his gridlock-style leadership that has paralyzed the United States Senate. Despite these results, Alison Lundergan Grimes remains one of America's brightest stars and a leader who will continue to champion working families.'
-- Dave Jamieson
Fifty-seven percent of voters in the Georgia Senate race favor raising the minimum wage, according to exit polls.
The vast majority -- 75 percent -- of those voters went for Democrat Michelle Nunn, while 86 percent of voters who oppose raising it backed Republican David Perdue. The race remains too close to call.
-- Amanda Terkel
Colorado has same-day registration and the polls close in approximately an hour.
--Sam Levine
Grimes just called McConnell to concede, per aide #CNNElection
- Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) November 5, 2014
The Washington Post's Nia Malika Henderson has a piece up on what may be next for the young Democrat.
-- Akbar Shahid Ahmed
HuffPost's Paige Lavender reports:
Scott became a senator in 2013, when when Sen. Jim DeMint (R) resigned. He was appointed to fill DeMint's Senate seat by South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R). At the time, he was only the fifth African American ever to hold a U.S. Senate seat. With his victory on Tuesday, Scott officially became the first black senator to be elected by popular vote in the South. He'll now finish out DeMint's term, set to end in 2016.
Read more here.
With Ohio Governor John Kasich (R) having just won re-election, attendees at his campaign's celebration are keen to hear what he has to say. One reporter explains that they won't need to wait very long:
Kasich is at the hotel. We expect him in the ballroom within the hour. This is not a governor who likes to stay up late.
- Jim Heath (@JimHeath10TV) November 5, 2014
.@Wisconsin_GAB says turnout on pace to meet prediction of about 2.5 million, or 56.5%, which would be record for midterm election
- Scott Bauer (@sbauerAP) November 5, 2014
Voters under 30 remain a largely Democratic voting bloc, preliminary exit polls find.
One recent poll suggested that millennials who definitely planned on voting were more likely to favor a GOP-controlled Congress. Other surveys, however, differed -- and while national exit polling is still trickling in, the first results show voters ages 18-24 favoring Democrats by a 14-point margin, and those ages 25-29 voting Democratic by a 13-point margin.
-- Ariel Edwards-Levy
Eighty-nine percent of voters followed news about the Ebola virus at least somewhat closely, according to preliminary results from a national exit poll of voters in U.S. House races Tuesday evening. A quarter of voters said they followed Ebola news 'extremely closely,' while only 8 percent said 'not too closely.'
A narrow majority said they disapproved of the government's response to Ebola, with Democrats favoring the response and Republicans disapproving.
-- Arthur Delaney
HuffPost's Paige Lavender reports:
Republican Shelley Moore Capito defeated Democrat Natalie Tennant in the U.S. Senate race in West Virginia, according to The Associated Press.
Capito, who has served in Congress since being elected to the House of Representatives in 2001, is the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate from the Mountain State. She is the daughter of former West Virginia Gov. Arch Moore.
Read more here.
Latino voters nationwide heavily supported Democratic candidates over Republicans, with nearly 70 percent favoring the Democratic candidate in gubernatorial, Senate and House races, according to a poll released Tuesday by Latino Decisions.
The polling firm reported earlier Tuesday that immigration reform remains a major issue for Latinos, and is now releasing state-by-state findings throughout the evening. The first installment included nationwide numbers, and found that 68 percent of Latino voters favored the Democratic candidate for governor. Sixty-seven percent favored the Democratic candidate for Senate, and 69 percent favored the Democratic candidate for the House.
A Pew Research Center poll released last week found that a majority of Latino registered voters still support Democrats, but that support for congressional Democrats is down slightly from 2010. In 2012, President Barack Obama won with 70 percent or more of the Latino vote, according to polling.
Latino Decisions also released results from its survey in Georgia, which largely mirrored the nationwide results. They found that 70 percent of Latino voters preferred Democratic challenger Jason Carter to current Republican Gov. Nathan Deal, whom only 27 percent favored. For the Senate, Latino voters supported Michelle Nunn (D) over David Perdue (R) by a 69 percent to 29 percent margin. And for the House, 74 percent of Georgia Latino voters favored the Democratic candidate in their district, versus 23 percent who favored the Republican.
In North Carolina, Latino voters preferred Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan over her Republican challenger Thom Tillis by a margin of 63 percent to 33 percent. They favored the Democratic candidate for the House over the Republican by a margin of 67 percent to 31 percent.
The poll was conducted by Latino Decisions on behalf of a number of groups supportive of immigration reform: America's Voice, Latino Victory Project, the National Council of La Raza, AFL-CIO, Mi Familia Vota, NALEO Educational Fund and People For the American Way.
Latino Decisions released additional results later Tuesday evening. Illinois Latino voters were even more strongly supportive of Democrats than Latino voters nationwide. Seventy-seven percent of them favored Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn over his Republican challenger, Bruce Rauner, who was preferred by only 22 percent. Eighty-two percent of Illinois Latino voters supported Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin -- a strong supporter of immigration reform. Latino voters in the state favored Democrats over Republicans by a 82 percent to 17 percent margin.
Latino voters in Florida were less skewed toward Democrats. A slim majority -- 52 percent -- favored Democrat Charlie Crist over Republican Gov. Rick Scott in the governor's race. Forty-five percent of Latino voters preferred Scott. For House races, Latino voters favored Democratic candidates over Republicans by a margin of 53 percent to 44 percent.
-- Elise Foley
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