WASHINGTON – Republicans retained control of the Senate on Tuesday, ousting Democratic incumbents in Indiana and North Dakota and handing President Donald Trump a triumph by ensuring they will remain as guardians of his conservative agenda for two more years.
Despite Trump’s deeply polarizing effect on voters, the GOP harnessed his rock-solid popularity with hard-right voters in rural, deep-red states. They held onto seats in the South, Midwest and West and ensured at least a 50-50 Senate – enough to give Republicans control because Vice President Mike Pence as president of the Senate would tip the balance to the GOP.
Republicans paved their path to victory by defeating Democrats Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota. They also held on to competitive seats in Texas, where Sen. Ted Cruz fended off Rep. Beto O’Rourke, the well-financed liberal darling, and in Tennessee, where Rep. Marsha Blackburn prevailed.
The GOP Senate victory was magnified because Democrats stood a solid chance of wresting control of the House from Republicans.
That would give the Senate the role of blocking House-passed Democratic initiatives on everything from health care to the potential repeal of tax cuts on the wealthy that the GOP enacted last year.
It would also leave the Senate as the showcase for the GOP’s goals of tax and spending cuts, trade, immigration restrictions, curbs on Obama’s health care law and judicial nominations.
Republicans entered the night commanding the Senate only narrowly, 51-49. But a crucial piece of math was in their favor Tuesday: The Democrats and their two independent allies were defending 26 seats, Republicans just nine.
Blackburn, a conservative who is also an ardent Trump backer, defeated former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, 74. Bredesen had promised a bipartisan approach if elected and had won the endorsement of music star Taylor Swift.
Heitkamp lost to GOP Rep. Kevin Cramer, whom Trump persuaded to seek the Senate seat. Heitkamp was hurt late in her campaign by an ad that mistakenly named some women as victims of sexual abuse.
The night’s news wasn’t completely disastrous for Democrats.
Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin was re-elected in West Virginia, a state Trump captured by 42 percentage points in his 2016 election triumph. Democratic incumbents also prevailed in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Midwestern states that Trump carried narrowly two years ago.
Overall, Democrats were defending seats in 10 states that Trump took in 2016, including five he won by at least a huge 19 percentage points. Trump prevailed in Indiana by 19 points.
Tuesday’s midterm elections were among the most bitter in years.
