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US mid-terms: Republicans win control of the Senate | US mid-terms: Republicans win control of the Senate |
(35 minutes later) | |
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. | |
One of the key early results came in Kentucky, where Republican Senate Minority Leader McConnell fended off Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes | |
Mr McConnell will now become the Senate majority leader. | |
"I've heard your concerns, I've made them my own, you will be heard in Washington," he said as he declared victory. | |
"When you get right down to it that's what this campaign was really all about. It's wasn't about me or my opponent. It was about a government that people can no longer trust." | |
As well as in the Senate races, the Republicans had a strong showing in the election for the 435 members of the House of Representatives, where they are projected to increase their majority. | |
In Florida and Wisconsin, Republican governors have survived tough re-election battles. | |
Now that they control both houses of Congress, the Republicans have the power to shut down Mr Obama's policies in the last two years of his term. | |
For the past year, political gridlock in Congress has reached historical levels and analysts say this win could make the situation even worse before the president poll in 2016. | For the past year, political gridlock in Congress has reached historical levels and analysts say this win could make the situation even worse before the president poll in 2016. |