All in all, it was a good night to be a Democrat as the blue party won major victories in US Senate races across the country to retain control of the Senate.
In Massachusetts, history was made as Democrat Elizabeth Warren defeated incumbent Republican Scott Brown to become the first female senator in Massachusetts history, the Washington Post reported.
According to Google projections, with 99.9 percent of districts reporting, Warren won 53.7 percent of votes in Massachusetts (1,678,176 votes) while Brown won 46.3 percent (1,449,039 votes).
Brown stunned Democrats in January 2010 when he took the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the death of iconic political figure Ted Kennedy. But he faced a stiff challenge from Warren, a Harvard professor, who he spent months battling in three heated debates in an election that cost both their campaigns a combined $70 million.
In South Boston on Wednesday at the Broadway T Station, Warren greeted commuters and pledged to work tirelessly for the middle class.
"This is about helping to strengthen and rebuild our middle class, our working families and doing whatever it takes to make that happen," she said during a five-minute press conference, according to The Boston Globe.
"We're facing a $16 trillion deficit," she said, referring to the total national debt. "I look at that deficit and I think of my little grandson, he's 2 years old. If we don't do something, he's the one that's going to pay the price."
Meanwhile, in Missouri's US Senate race, Democrat Claire McCaskill defeated Republican representative Todd Akin, 54.7 percent to 39.2 percent in the polls, with McCaskill netting 1,484,683 votes while Akin took only 1,063,698 ballots. Libertarian candidate Jonathan Dine took a mere 6.1 percent of votes, or 164,991 ballots.
As the New York Times reports, Akin's campaign took a nosedive when he made comments that women who are victims of "legitimate rape" would not get pregnant.
McCaskill and Warren will be two of the record 20 women will hold US Senate seats, a record number from the current 17, in the U.S. Senate, according to the Washington Post.
Meanwhile, in a key election in Indiana, incumbent US Representative Joe Donnelly took the senate seat for the Democrats, beating out his prime rival, Republican State Treasurer Richard Mourdock, 49.9 percent to 44.4 percent. Donnelly won 1,263,885 ballots while Mourdock took 1,124,058 Indiana votes.
While both were pro life candidates, Mourdock weeks ago became a beacon for nationwide criticism and late-night talk show fodder after stating during a debate that women becoming pregnant as a result of rape was intended by God.
Those wins put the exclamation point on wins in Connecticut, Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania to keep control of the Senate in the Democrats' camp, 53 to 45. The Republican Party has not held a majority in the Senate since 2006, the New York Times notes.
"We said we'd defend all of our seats and would put half of their seats in play," Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the chairwoman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, told the Times.
"No one believed me," she said, "but we did just that."
In Connecticut, Democrat Chris Murphy withstood an expensive onslaught from Republican and former World Wrestling Entertainment executive Linda McMahon to win the US Senate race, 55.1 percent to 43.2 percent. McMahon spent more than $42 million on her election bid, including part of her personal fortune, ABC News reported Tuesday night.
Finally in Maine, independent ex-Maine Gov. Angus King defeated Republican Charles Summer and Democrat Cynthia Dill to grab the US Senate seat held by retiring Republican moderate Olympia Snowe, who is retiring.
King told the Associated Press Tuesday that he was "fired up" and ready to go to Washington to end the gridlock between Republicans and Democrats, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported.
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