Against all odds, United States President Barack Obama has made history once again after winning the US presidential race against his titanic opponent and Republican Party challenger Mitt Romney, in a closely fought contest. Obama won at least eight of the swing states that could have gone either way, including Florida and Ohio, giving him more than the 270 electoral votes he needed to retain his seat. At the time of going to press, Obama had 331 electoral votes to Romney’s 204.? Romney was however ahead on the number of popular votes.?
President Obama, who was the candidate of the Democratic Party, has been declared winner of the historic presidential election in the country.
The results as announced by the United States Election Centre yesterday night indicated that the candidate of the Republicans lost his state, Massachusetts, to President Obama who got 60 percent against Romney’s 38 percent.
Some of the states that President Barrack Obama comfortably won are New Hampshire, Vermont, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware and District Columbia.
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Senatorial race
Meanwhile, Republicans were dealt a blow to their ambitions to take back the majority in the Senate after Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren won against Republican incumbent Scott Brown in Massachusetts’ closely watched Senate race.
Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown won re-election in one of the most expensive and closely watched match-ups in the country, while GOP businesswoman Linda McMahon fell short in her second bid for a Senate seat in Connecticut, according to Associated Press projections.
Former Governor Angus King won the race in Maine to succeed retiring Republican moderate Olympia Snowe. Even though Mr. King was running as an Independent, and has made it clear he won’t necessarily associate himself with either party in the Senate, he is widely seen as likely to vote with Democrats on most matters.
Democrats won the race in Connecticut to succeed Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman, who usually voted with the Democratic Party. Republicans had eyed this race as a potential pickup after polls had tightened in the summer. In the race, Democratic Rep. Chris Murphy defeated Ms. McMahon, a former wrestling executive.
Despite an onslaught of attacks from conservative outside groups in Ohio, Mr. Brown topped Republican challenger Josh Mandel, the state treasurer and a US Marine veteran who served two tours in Iraq.
In other early returns, Democrats won seats in Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and West Virginia, while another Independent lawmaker, Sen. Bernie Sanders, who also usually votes with the party, won in Vermont. Republicans held on to the Senate seats in Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming.
In Indiana, a state that the GOP must now hold if it has any chance of winning back the Senate, the AP reported that with 32% of the vote counted, Democratic Rep. Joe Donnelly was leading GOP State Treasurer Richard Mourdock 49.9% to 44.2%.
Heading into 2012, the widely held view was that this election cycle represented the GOP’s strongest chance to take control of the chamber after six years in the minority. The GOP was being forced to defend 10 seats, compared with the Democrats’ 23. And many of the Democratic seats were in moderate parts of the US that often vote Republican.
? But the unexpected retirement of a Republican moderate, combined with a series of missteps by Republican candidates—and strong campaigns waged by Democratic challengers—placed obstacles before Republicans in their efforts to take back the Senate.
Heading into yesterday’s elections, Democrats held a 53-47 majority, including two independents who generally vote with them, meaning Republicans would have needed to win a net four seats to be assured of a majority. A 50-50 tie means that the vice president of the party in the White House would break deadlocks in the Senate.
The Democrats have incumbents running in traditionally GOP-friendly territories of Missouri and Montana, as well as incumbents and challengers for open seats competing in swing states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. And because of retirements by Democratic lawmakers, the Democrats have also had to compete in states like Nebraska and North Dakota, which had been held by a Democratic senator despite being red-leaning states.
In contrast, the only GOP incumbent in a blue state seeking re-election was Sen. Scott Brown in Massachusetts, while Sen. Dean Heller is seeking his first full term in the swing state of Nevada. Ms. Snowe’s retirement then threw blue-leaning Maine into play.
Real Clear Politics, the political-aggregation website, said that according to its polls of polls, Democrats are leading in all of these races except for Arizona, Nebraska, and Nevada, while the race in Montana between incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester and challenger Rep. Dennis Rehberg is a virtual tie.
This year, veteran Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana was defeated by Mr. Mourdock, the state treasurer, in the GOP primary. But a solid campaign by Rep. Donnelly and remarks by Mr. Mourdock about rape victims and abortion have resulted in Mr. Donnelly leading in most polls.
Despite the partisan rancour that has characterized Congress in recent years, the Senate has proved itself able to achieve some compromises, most notably on a bill to re-authorize highway funding and prevent an increase in student-loan rates earlier this year.
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