US Senate and House midterm election results
State of the states: key races to watch across the US
Immigration failure will lead to civil war among Democrats
11.51pm ET
If youre at this party, please shoot more of these. It looks like its only going to get more fun in there.
11.49pm ET
A further couple of results from the southwest, via AP:
Dem Tom Udall wins re-election to the U.S. Senate in New Mexico.
11.43pm ET
Ernst uses the occasion of her victory speech to make a castration joke.
Its a long way from Red Oak to Washington. From the biscuit line at Hardees to the US Senate.
But thanks to all of you we are headed to Washington. And we are going to make em squeal!
11.41pm ET
The Republicans, if they win Alaska, have run the table. Democrat Bruce Braley falls in Iowa.
BREAKING: GOP Joni Ernst wins election to the U.S. Senate in Iowa. @AP race call at 11:37 p.m. EST. #Election2014 #APracecall
We didnt agree on much, but I do admire anyone who is willing to stand up and fight for what they believe in.
Well Iowa, we did it!
11.40pm ET
Oregon joins Washington DC in legalizing marijuana, according to the local paper the Oregonian.
With about half the vote counted, its 55%-45%, the Guardians Chris McGreal reports.
11.37pm ET
11.33pm ET
Guardian data editor Alberto Nardelli notes that the party in control of the White house always loses seats in the midtems. But its not usually a hemorrhage like this:
In every midterm but three since 1862, the party that controls the White House has lost seats. To make matters even more difficult for the Democrats, six of the 21 seats the party was defending today were in states President Obama lost twice.
That said, over the past 21 years the party of the incumbent president has lost, in average, four Senate seats during the midterms. The Republicans have gained six seats (so far) from the Democrats, they have retained all the seats they were defending, and in most states outperformed the polls - against the forecasts, they kept Kansas and took North Carolina - a landslide.
11.29pm ET
OK, commenters. What didnt the Republicans win tonight?
Update: If you said the Illinois governors race, where Obama favorite Pat Quinn was running for reelection, you are w-r-o-n-g:
BREAKING: GOP Bruce Rauner wins election as governor of Illinois. @AP race call at 11:26 p.m. EST. #Election2014 #APracecall
11.27pm ET
They needed six. They have six. They held Kansas and Georgia and Kentucky. The Republicans win:
11.25pm ET
Republican Thom Tillis has defeated Democratic incumbent Kay Hagan in North Carolina, AP projects.
The Republicans won the night, big. They swept the key Senate races and the three big governors races. They are still running hard in one state that forecasters were awarding the Democrats, Virginia.
BREAKING: Republicans cinch control of US Senate.
11.22pm ET
The voters have spoken. And it is a cacophony.
So voters want a higher minimum wage, legal pot, abortion access and GOP representation. Ok then.
11.21pm ET
Have Republicans just won the Senate? FiveThirtyEight is now giving it 99% odds:
Republicans chances of winning the Senate are now 99 percent, based on the ABC News projection that Republican David Perdue has won in Georgia without a runoff and Republican Pat Roberts has won in Kansas.
11.16pm ET
A Republican Trifecta in the three key governors races, Florida, Wisconsin and now Michigan. AP calls it a loss for Democrat Mark Schauer and a win for the incumbent:
BREAKING: GOP Rick Snyder wins election as governor of Michigan. @AP race call at 11:12 p.m. EST. #Election2014 #APracecall
11.14pm ET
Heres our latest Senate grid. Miserable for the Democrats. Louisiana, the one in purple, is very likely to fall red in its December runoff. But it doesnt appear likely well have to hold our breaths much longer to find out who controls the US Senate for the 114th Congress.
11.11pm ET
Another big blow for the Republicans, with incumbent Senator Pat Roberts holding his seat. Greg Orman, an independent candidate, looked good in the polls for the duration.
11.09pm ET
The Guardians Kayla Epstein brings us the big news from Staten Island, where the incumbent who faces 20 federal counts including perjury, fraud and employing undocumented immigrants at his restaurant Healthalicious (which name should be grounds for criminal charges) has ... won reelection:
Michael Grimm just won re-election (via @WNYC) Back in April, I warned not to write him off http://t.co/dQhSPwXTjU pic.twitter.com/48zllBUaFK
11.03pm ET
A few more incumbents go home happy:
BREAKING: Dem Jeff Merkley wins election to the U.S. Senate in Oregon. @AP race call at 11 p.m. EST poll close. #Election2014 #APracecall
11.02pm ET
As our live blog coverage continues, heres a summary of where things stand:
10.53pm ET
Another Republican win in another governors race: Doug Ducey, the state treasurer, has won the race in Arizona, the AP projects. Ducey defeated Democrat Fred DuVal, a former aide to president Bill Clinton.
10.49pm ET
Another big one for the Republicans. Governor Scott Walker wins reelection in Wisconsin, after surviving a recall vote in 2012, after originally being elected in 2010. That means hes been elected governor of Wisconsin three times in the last four years.
Walker is disliked by progressives, teachers unions and pro-labor groups for a so-called budget repair that took away the collective bargaining rights of state employees and cute Medicaid rolls. The opposition to Walker is impassioned but he keeps winning.
10.45pm ET
Rep. John Barrow, the last white Democrat from the Deep South, has lost his seat in Georgia, the networks are projecting.
It took a decade, but Republicans have finally toppled John Barrow, the last remaining white congressional Democrat from the deep south.
Less than two weeks before Election Day, the National Republican Congressional Committee had spent nearly $1.93 million to oust Mr. Barrow, the Democrat who is fighting for a sixth term, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had spent about $1.96 million on the race, most of it dedicated to opposing Rick Allen, the Republican challenger who owns a construction company based in Augusta, Ga.
10.43pm ET
Heres a snippet of Mitch McConnells victory speech. The Turtle is happy in his win:
10.40pm ET
A nice win in the New Mexico governors race for... the Republican:
BREAKING: GOP Susana Martinez wins re-election as governor of New Mexico. @AP race call at 10:27 p.m. EST. #Election2014 #APracecall
10.40pm ET
That wheezing sound you hear is the Democrats exhaling close to all thats left of their hopes of hanging on to the Senate. There is still a very small path involving a flip in Kansas and surprise victories elsewhere.
Still a path for Democrats, but it involves a wormhole and killing the right butterfly, so very risky.
10.38pm ET
Here is maybe the story of the night: the margin in the Virginia race is still razor thin, with 98.6% of the vote counted. Mark Warner, the incumbent Democrat, leads challenger Ed Gillespie 48.7%-48.6%.
10.31pm ET
Thats a lot of red in our graphic tracking key Senate races. Note that most polling indicates Louisiana, the runoff there in purple, will fall Republican when voters try again in December.
Republicans could still fall short the six seats theyre looking for by losing in Kansas and/Georgia but thats only if Democrats sweep Iowa and Alaska and Georgia, which would be tricky pool, especially considering they seem to be fighting for North Carolina and even Virginia.
10.26pm ET
The incumbent Republican keeps his post. Democrat Charlie Crist was running slightly ahead in the polling averages down to the wire, and the Democrats poured untold money and effort into the race. A discouraging loss, right on the heels of the Colorado Senate defeat.
Two other governors races to watch: Wisconsin and Michigan. If Republicans hold all three, theyll have real cause to celebrate.
BREAKING: GOP Rick Scott wins re-election as governor of Florida. @AP race call at 10:20 p.m. EST. #Election2014 #APracecall
10.19pm ET
AP: GOP Cory Gardner wins election to the U.S. Senate in Colorado
Thats a big win for the Republicans, one that brings control of the Senate within reach. Its another flip from the Democrats the loser is incumbent Senator Mark Udall and its in a state that Obama won in 2012.
10.14pm ET
The Democrat wins the Rhode Island governors race. Another projection come true.
BREAKING: Dem Gina Raimondo wins election as governor of Rhode Island. @AP race call at 10:08 p.m. EST. #Election2014 #APracecall
10.12pm ET
The Guardians Paul Lewis (@paullewis) has gone and hung out in a pot cafe outside of Boulder, Colorado, so you dont have to. Unless you want to. Anyway, the patrons arent voting this year:
There was an outbreak of giggles in Americas first legal marijuana cafe when I asked the question. So ... is anyone voting today?
It wasnt as if no one in the room was interested in politics. For an hour they had been arguing over tax, policing, municipal regulation, the difference between Democrats and Republicans and what the Founding Fathers intended when they wrote the US constitution.
10.05pm ET
Max Baucus departure to become ambassador to China left his Democratic Senate seat in Montana vulnerable to being picked off.
Now thats happened.
10.00pm ET
The decision desks did not wait long to call this one. With 2.8% of precincts reporting, according to AP, the Senate race in Louisiana is going to a runoff, with neither of the top two candidates, incumbent Democrat Mary Landrieu or challenger Republican Bill Cassidy, gaining 50% of the vote.
The runoff was expected. But thats one fewer data point well have in trying to figure out this evening who has won control of the Senate. Well have to wait until December.
BREAKING: Louisiana Senate race headed to runoff election in December.
9.56pm ET
Every candidate plans an election night party but not all of them end up as festivals of joy. Visit our gallery of the best election night photos here.
9.49pm ET
The voters of Washington, DC, have voted in favor of marijuana legalization, NPR reports:
In the first of several widely watched votes on marijuana in the midterm election season, voters in Washington, D.C., have approved the legal use of marijuana for recreational purposes.
Supporters of the D.C. marijuana measure had a 65-29.5 percent lead as of 9:09 p.m. ET, with 20,727 voting in favor.
9.48pm ET
More Senate and gubernatorial results, again cooperating nicely with the projections:
9.44pm ET
Bush wins: George P. Bush, son of prospective presidential candidate Jeb and nephew of former President George W (grandson of HW) has won election as Texas Land Commissioner.
How many president and future president do you see in this picture?
11% George, 100% Bush pic.twitter.com/IWcpawbuw9
9.42pm ET
Florida has voted down an initiative to legalize medical marijuana. The proposal won 57% support but it needed 60%.
Jeb Lund attended a Florida rally with state senator Garrett Richter and sampled the local opposition to the weed. Jeb writes in a Comment is Free piece, The Republican faithful is comfortably dumb enough to worship at the bully pulpit:
Richter then asks if were ready to meet our next governor, then corrects himself, before reminding us what the N stands for. Its November, when we have to do some things: A) Reelect Rick Scott. The crowd cheers. B... Richter begins, before drawing a huge breath: DOWN WITH MARIJUANA!
9.39pm ET
As our live blog coverage continues, heres a summary of where things stand:
9.30pm ET
The Virginia Senate race continues to be highly exciting but the quants, who are looking at the political leanings of counties that have yet to report, still think the Democrat wins it, as projected. Heres FiveThirtyEight:
And in Virginia, while it still looks more likely than not that Mark Warner will prevail, Republican Ed Gillespie has done much better than polls projected. A loss there would be every bit as devastating to Democrats Senate hopes as one in New Hampshire would have been.
The latest AP on #vasen -- 85% in, Gillespie (50%) v. Warner (47%) pic.twitter.com/KlP3mZPGKr
9.28pm ET
The AP projects that Republican Pete Ricketts has won election as governor of Nebraska. With 10.5% of precincts reporting, Ricketts held a 55-52 lead over Democrat Chuck Hassebrook, with a Libertarian candidate taking low-single-digits.
9.23pm ET
How alarming is Tom Brokaws ring tone? The NBC newsman was interrupted as he gave election results live on-air. He recovers very nicely with a riff on groceries:
9.20pm ET
The scale of the voting troubles that cropped up across the country today has been underlined by new figures put out by the largest monitoring group the Election Protection Coalition, the Guardians Ed Pilkington (@edpilkington) reports:
It says that as of 8pm Est some 18,498 had called its hotline to report difficulties they had casting their ballot - an increase of 40% over the total in Election Day in 2010.
The three hottest trouble spots where there were reports if long lines, voters turned away as they tried to vote and confusion were Florida with 1,967 Calls to the hotline, Texas which has a new restrictive Voter-ID law in place with 1,876 calls and Georgia with 1,815.
9.19pm ET
Were keeping a peripheral view on the House races, where the Republicans are expected to expand their majority.
One question: will they be able to pick up the eight seats they conceded to Democrats in 2012? If the Republicans manage to pick up 11 seats, they will hit their drive to 245; if they pick up 13, theyll have an historic majority, not seen since 1928.
BREAKING: Republicans on track to keep control of House if remaining incumbents win as expected.
9.17pm ET
The Tea Party favorite wins the Senate race in Nebraska to replace the retiring Republican Mike Johanns.
BREAKING: Ben Sasse wins election to the U.S. Senate in Nebraska. @AP race call at 9:14 p.m. EST. #Election2014 #APracecall
9.15pm ET
Here are a swath of new results, around the nine oclock hour. Again, no surprises, despite Republican designs early on on that Michigan Senate seat Gary Peters just one.
9.11pm ET
The Guardians Jon Swaine in New Hampshire reports from the scene of a big celebration:
Jeanne Shaheens supporters here in Manchester just erupted in chants of her name after victory was declared by the networks for the first-term Democrat over her Republican challenger, Scott Brown, in the New Hampshire Senate race.
Shaheen appears to have done better than was forecast in final opinion polls, which gave her a barely-there lead of up to one percentage point. A look at the returns in some of the wealthier suburbs of Manchester, which lean strongly Republican, gives a glimpse of why.
9.07pm ET
The South Dakota Senate seat was a predicted pickup for the Republicans, along with West Virginia and though it has not been called yet Montana.
Heres a graph with some tossup races, illustrating the Republican need for six new seats to rise from their current tally of 45 to a majority of 51.
Having taken West Virginia, South Dakota and Arkansas from the Democrats, the Republicans need three more gains in order to win a Senate majority. This assuming GOP retains all the seats the party is defending. Should the party lose any of its seats, such as Kansas or Georgia where the races are expected to be close, the Republicans would then need to gain four seats. Should they lose both seats, theyll need five gains, and so on.
9.04pm ET
The networks are calling New Hampshire for incumbent Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, who defeats Republican Scott Brown.
That makes Brown a loser in Senate races in two states.
Still my favorite moment of the night, so far: http://t.co/YsduUcgtIX pic.twitter.com/DF60RTRJHF
9.02pm ET
Reublican Mike Rounds picks up the South Dakota Senate seat vacated by Democrat Tim Johnson in his retirement.
8.59pm ET
What can we expect from Tom Cotton, the Republican congressman who was just elected to the Senate from Arkansas? Big things, it seems. Mother Jones has reported on how, a number of years ago, Cotton called for the imprisonment of national security journalists on espionage charges:
In 2006, Tom Cotton, a twentysomething US Army lieutenant serving in Iraq, wrote an open letter calling for the prosecution and imprisonment of two of the New York Times most prominent reporters, Eric Lichtblau and James Risen, who had just broken a major story about how the government was tracking terrorist financing. The letter, which also called for the prosecution of Bill Keller, the Times then-executive editor, was initially published on the conservative blog PowerLine but soon went viral.
By the time we return home, maybe you will be in your rightful place: not at the Pulitzer announcements, but behind bars.
8.55pm ET
Senator Rand Paul, who just may run for president in 2016, spent yesterday campaigning with Mitch McConnell, who tonight has won the race that may catapult him into the Senate majority leader seat.
Paul the elder isnt such a fan of the new leadership McConnell represents:
Republican control of the Senate = expanded neocon wars in Syria and Iraq. Boots on the ground are coming!
8.53pm ET
How is the Republican attempt to take over the Senate going?
There are signs, from county returns in North Carolina to early numbers in Virginia, that Republicans are having a strong night. They have the early piece of a Kentucky win in place.
8.47pm ET
Two Democrats in the northeast easily hold their Senate seats, as anticipated, the AP projects:
Chris Coons wins election to the U.S. Senate in Delaware.
Jack Reed wins election to the U.S. Senate in Rhode Island
8.43pm ET
The New Hampshire governors race has been called for Democrat Maggie Hassan, who had a late-race scare, if the polling is to be believed, from Republican Walt Havenstein. With 15.3% of precincts reporting, according to the Associated Press, Hassan enjoys a 56.8-43.2 lead.
The Senate race in New Hampshire, where incumbent Jeanne Shaheen is trying to fend off former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown, is still too close to call.
8.39pm ET
Heres a terrifying dispatch from the Guardians Rory Carroll (@rorycarroll72) from Des Moines, Iowa, where most canvassers have called it a night, but...
Eric Thorson, 40, is keeping a lonely vigil on the corner of 2nd Ave and Court St, with a white costume and painted face, distributing flyers urging people to vote Republican.
Why? Because the Democrats discriminate against white people.
Thorson says hes been out all day. The streets are now cold and deserted, but hes not quitting. Its an important message.
8.34pm ET
Were back to McConnells speech -- apologies for that interruption.
McConnell is speaking of a compact that every generation has made.
As Ive traveled through Kentucky Ive sensed new doubts. ... Theyre hungry for new leadership... above all they want some reassurance that the people who run the government are actually on their side.
8.31pm ET
Cotton beats incumbent Democrat Mark Pryor, according to projections by the networks.
Asa Hutchinson wins the Arkansas governors race, meanwhile, which was much closer than the Senate race.
8.30pm ET
Senator McConnell, just reelected, is speaking.
Boy, McConnell is feeling great. Hes cracking the jokes:
I work hard to bring your concerns to Washingotn and I will not let up. Every election is a job interview. In this case a very long one. [exuberant laughs]
Id like to make an announcement: no more campaign commercials. [exuberant cheers]
She earned a lot of votes and she earned my respect. It took a lot of guts... she took some heat. ... She deserves a lot of credit for it.This was certainly a hard-fought contest.
8.27pm ET
Do you count yourself among those election watchers who is not afraid of preliminary exit polling results, warnings as to their consistent unreliability be damned?
Well then, dig in. The whole kit and caboodle lives on the Washington Post web site. The results have usual key Democratic blocs not showing their usual strong numbers for the Democrats, with women voters going only 53-45 for Democrats, and young voters aged 18-29 going 55-42 for the Dems.
8.19pm ET
Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Democrat who lost tonight to Mitch McConnell, is delivering her concession speech.
The crowd is cheering her as she names Kentucky counties where her campaign team turned out voters.
While tonight didnt bring us the result we had hoped for, this journey, the fight for you, was worth it. I will continue to fight for the commonwealth of Kentucky each and every day.
8.18pm ET
A governor falls in Pennsylvania:
#BREAKING: NBC News projects that Tom Wolf will win the Pa. governor's race over incumbent Tom Corbett. http://t.co/Q4A83HdydM #WPXIPolitics
Corbett becomes the first incumbent governor to lose a re-election bid in PA history* (*only allowed to seek a second term since 1970).
8.15pm ET
In Floridas Broward County, circuit court judge Jack Tuter has rejected Charlie Crists motion to extend polling by two hours until 9pm, Richard Luscombe reports for the Guardian:
Crist, the Democratic Party challenger to incumbent Republican governor Rick Scott, had claimed broken polling machines were denying citizens their right to vote. Those who were in line at 7pm, however, were still allowed to cast their ballot. With 65 per cent of the votes counted statewide, only a third of one per cent separated the candidates in what is shaping up to be the nations tightest gubernatorial race.
8.13pm ET
As expected, Republican Senator Lamar Alexander holds his seat in Tennessee, AP projects.
Our Senate grid, which has developed quite quickly, if along rather predictable lines, now looks like this:
8.11pm ET
The Associated Press has called a stack of races around the 8 oclock hour (ET). In addition to the Sessions call, the AP has winning:
8.08pm ET
CBS News sets a new benchmark for fearless forecasting:
PROJECTION: Republican incumbent Jeff Sessions wins the Alabama Senate race -- Sessions ran unopposed pic.twitter.com/e6mLXDbxEn
8.07pm ET
Theres some restlessness around the Senate results so far in Virginia, which most forecasters saw as a win for incumbent Democrat Mark Warner. Republican Ed Gillespie appears to be running more strongly than anticipated. Heres the New York Times model digging into the early results:
Whoa. Upshot model has VA looking good for Gillespie. pic.twitter.com/V56BEMcp1J
The Democrat, Mark Warner, is slightly ahead in the exit polls, but not by as much as in pre-election surveys, which put him up by an average of 9 percentage points. [...]
Warner is still the favorite to pull out the race: Exit polls arent necessarily all that informative as compared with pre-election surveys. Well be getting more real votes in soon. But for what its worth, if Republican Ed Gillespie wins, it would be one of the bigger polling errors in recent memory in a Senate election a once-or-twice-a-decade type miss.
8.00pm ET
With 18.9% of precincts reporting in Florida, gubernatorial candidates Charlie Crist, the Democrat, and Rick Scott, the Republican incumbent, are running just four-tenths of a percentage point apart, according to an Associated Press tally.
7.57pm ET
As our live blog coverage continues, heres a summary of where things stand:
7.49pm ET
Tim Scott, who was just elected junior senator from South Carolina (on a team with Lindsey Graham, who just won a third term), has become the first African-American elected to the Senate from the Deep South since post-Civil War Reconstruction. Scott had been appointed to the seat following the departure from the senate of Jim DeMint.
Tim Scott's win was inevitable but still a landmark for the South and the country.
7.45pm ET
A secretary of state, she was the last candidate to run against Mitch McConnell before he moved into position to become Senate Majority Leader.
Who is... who is... I know this..
People are watching jeopardy at the bar of the Grimes party pic.twitter.com/eIT91FyHbm
The call: @AlisonForKY just called Mitch McConnell to concede the election, @ABC has learned.
7.41pm ET
What do you know? Legal wranglings over voting in Floridas Broward County, reports Richard Luscombe for the Guardian:
Browards infamous hanging chads and dimples on ballot papers created the election farce that kept the nation waiting for a month before the US Supreme Court stepped in and declared George W Bush the winner of the 2000 presidential election.
Charlie Crist, the Democratic candidate seeking to unseat incumbent Republican Rick Scott from the Florida governors mansion, has filed an emergency motion to keep polling booths in the county open for an additional two hours, until 9pm, citing failure of electronic counting equipment and excessively long lines of citizens still waiting to cast their ballots.
7.39pm ET
As expected already the phrase, applied to a Republican win, feels like a broken record Governor John Kasich wins in Ohio, the networks and AP project.
Republicans go into tonights election with a 29-21 majority of the countrys governors mansions. They could lose one or more in, say, Florida, Michigan or Wisconsin. Holding all three would be one of many indicators of a very strong night for the GOP.
BREAKING: John Kasich wins re-election as governor of Ohio. @AP race call at 7:30 p.m. EST poll close. #Election2014 #APracecall
7.36pm ET
And now we have the first Republican pickup of a Senate seat tonight, as Shelley Moore Capito is projected to win in West Virginia, defeating Democrat Natalie Tennant. Capito will replace retiring Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller. Again, its an entirely expected result.
BREAKING: Shelley Moore Capito elected to U.S. Senate in West Virginia. @AP race call at 7:30 p.m. EST poll close. #Election2014 #APracecall
7.30pm ET
The 2014 election enters the books as the most expensive midterms ever, with the the Center for Responsive Politics estimating a total bill of $3.67bn.
The Wall Street Journal has the bright idea of making a list of things Americans spend more on annually, based on Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates of annual household consumption:
7.24pm ET
The Guardians Megan Carpentier (@megancarpentier) reports from Kentucky with one happy note on concerns about potential voter suppression in the state:
In the wake of reports (highlighted by the Brennan Center) that an anonymous person or persons had placed an advertisement in the weekly Berea City newspaper encouraging people to challenge Berea College students ability to vote in todays elections, the colleges student government president Jacob Burdette confirmed to The Guardian that, to his knowledge, none of the students faced challenges.
We had between 250 and 300 students take our shuttles to the polls, and plenty of others drive or walk on their own, he said, and There was only one challenger in student-voting districts who completed his or her training, Burdette said. Kentucky law only allows election officials and designated challengers who complete an official course to challenge anyone at the polls, a law which Common Cause called one of the best such laws.
7.19pm ET
Filling in the Senate grid has begun. Its all red so far. But in the next hour polls will close in two states Democrats hope and many say Democrats need to take, North Carolina and New Hampshire. The states may not be projected immediately either way.
7.12pm ET
With the reelection of Nikki Haley as governor, its a Republican sweep of the top statewide offices in South Carolina.
Per AP, Nikki Haley has been re-elected in the #SCGov race
7.08pm ET
The Kentucky result is a happy, if expected, start for Republicans. As late as a month from election day, some pollsters found Grimes, the Democrat, running even with the prospective Senate majority leader. McConnell seemed to pull away in the final weeks, however, taking a better-than-7-point lead in the polling averages.
7.03pm ET
At the minute of poll closings in Kentucky, the networks are projecting that Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican incumbent, has won reelection, defeating Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes.
The Associated Press projects Republican wins, as expected, in the two South Carolina races as well.
BREAKING: Republicans win Senate race in KY, both Senate seats in SC.
6.59pm ET
6.58pm ET
As the United States went to the polls for the first time in 50 years without the full protection of the federal Voting Rights Act on Tuesday, lawyers and voter registration groups around the country reported an unusual level of irregularities and glitches at polling stations, the Guardians Ed Pilkington (@edpilkington) reports:
The largest non-partisan voter protection coalition in the US received more than 12,000 calls to its hotline from people struggling to cast their ballot amid a slew of new voter-ID laws. The coalition of 150 groups led by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law said it has received an unusually high volume of distress calls from would-be voters to its eight call centers across the country.
6.56pm ET
The race to Election Day 2014 has ended with a 42% approval rating for President Barack Obama, near his all-time low, according to Gallups daily poll tracker. Disillusionment with the Democratic president could hurt Democrats generally, and may be especially damaging in two tossup states that Obama managed to win in 2012: Colorado and Iowa. The Republicans have fielded strong candidates for Senate in both places.
While Obama has popped up only intermittently on the campaign trail this election season, he has done a last-minute streak of radio for Election Day, Guardian Washington bureau chief Dan Roberts reports:
looks like Obama's been ringing up a lot of local radio stations on the quiet. 14 interviews in the last 24 hours despite silence nationally
6.44pm ET
Pace Kanye, there is plenty of time in most states to make it to the polls before they close.
I know its last minute, but if you havent voted, please vote today
The campaign is filing an emergency motion to extend voting hours in Broward County from 7pm to 9pm. See the motion: http://t.co/rHt108gVjO
This is a must-bookmark link for election junkies: our poll closing times map http://t.co/qVfti4o7aV pic.twitter.com/sGWT8OwiIP
6.39pm ET
Tuesdays congressional elections are likely to have implications for the course of the war against Isis militants in Iraq and Syria, reports Guardian US national security editor Spencer Ackerman (@attackerman):
Should Republicans gain control of the Senate, Arizona Republican John McCain will probably become chairman of the influential armed services committee.
A vociferous critic of Obamas foreign policy generally and his campaign against Isis in particular, McCain favors expanding the wars aims to overthrowing Assad as a gambit to convince Syrians to back the US against Isis in return. Obama has resisted that step, fearing subsequent US responsibility for a fractured Syria reminiscent of the painful post-Saddam occupation of Iraq.
6.32pm ET
Though most of the national attention bestowed on Kentucky has focused on the McConnell-Grimes Senate battle, union workers are almost just as interested in which way their statehouse will swing, reports the Guardians Megan Carpentier (@megancarpentier):
A Democratic loss of only 5 seats will put the second half of the bicameral legislature in Republican hands and, through a quirk of Kentucky law, give that party a veto-proof majority over Democratic governor Steven Bashear. (It takes only a simply majority to override the governors veto.)
Kentuckys unions and union workers expect that one of the first items on the Republican agenda will be the creation of a right to work state which union worker Chawan Morgan, an employee of the grocery store chain Kroger in Louisville, explained is definitely not what it sounds like.
For Morgan and fellow union member and Kroger employee, Abigail Shake, the issues of right to work, raising the minimum wage and equal pay for women were important enough to spend their non-working time helping their union elect Democratic candidates, including would-be senator Alison Lundergan Grimes.
Shake explained that her first campaign has already inspired her to go back to college so that she can better people, to better working families, because, like Chawan was saying about right to work, itll put a lot of people out of a lot of money, and thats single mothers who have to chose between paying the rent and putting food on the table and thats not right.
6.17pm ET
How to follow tonights results as they come in? The Guardians interactive desk has created a few useful tools.
Well track results in the Senate, House and governors races on an interactive map to be found here. To focus on the Senate, the grid below is a useful touchstone. The blank squares represent the Senate races playing out in 36 states:
6.07pm ET
A conservative watchdog group is declining to disclose locations in New Hampshire that it is monitoring for voting fraud, in case this stops people from trying to commit that fraud, the Guardians Jon Swaine reports:
Lawyers and volunteers from Washington-based Judicial Watch have been observing at polling stations to check that the Granite States photo-ID requirements for voters are being followed.
Announcing the operation last month, the group said it was intended to deter election fraud. Breitbart, the conservative news website, claimed it would specifically stop Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) or her allies from committing fraud. Shaheen faces a Republican challenger, Scott Brown.
Accusing the Obama administration of making unhinged attacks on voter ID, Tom Fitton, Judicial Watchs president, warned that the left plans to sow confusion on election day.
Yet Robert Popper, the attorney for the group who is leading its monitoring effort, told the Guardian on Tuesday that he preferred not to say exactly where they were operating because would-be vote fraudsters could read his remarks and be deterred from trying to breaking electoral law.
Conservative watchdog @JudicialWatch won't tell me NH spots it's monitoring to deter voter fraud.. in case this deters attempted voter fraud
It is perhaps presumptuous to expect that we have any deterrent effect whatsoever, but we want to catch the electoral situation in its native state, so to speak.
Popper, a former senior official in the voting section of the US justice departments civil rights division, said he and a team of less than 20 people had discovered causes for concern.
5.57pm ET
Welcome to our ongoing live blog coverage of the US midterm elections. It wont be long now an hour! until we have our first results of the night in some of the tossup races likely to determine control of the Senate. Thats tonights big prize, but there are plenty of other fascinating contests going, from a few seriously cutthroat governors races to proposals that could change how states enjoy their sex, drugs and guns.
Republicans have high hopes going into this evening of taking control of the US Senate, which would give them full control of Congress and a significant new lever to use against President Barack Obama in his final two years of office. In the Senate, 36 seats are in play tonight, as are all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 36 governors mansions.
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