GOP victory hinged on picking up seats in the South

CHARLOTTE, N.C.—In North Carolina’s largest city, officials will contest at least one vote cast for Tuesday’s mid-term elections: Charlotte’s disgraced former mayor Patrick Cannon voted early though he’s a convicted felon.

That’s illegal, but if the Democrat supported his party, it’s still a losing vote: North Carolina’s Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan fell to Republican contender Thom Tillis by midnight.

Hagan’s defeat was one part of a GOP romp across the country last night, as Republicans picked off at least seven Democratic seats to gain control of the U.S. Senate for the first time in eight years.

That’s no small task: The last time Republicans defeated more than two Democratic incumbents was 1980. In a late-night tweet, Senate majority leader Harry Reid’s spokesman acknowledged the reality of the Democrats’ loss: “We got our butts kicked up and down the block …”

In the South, GOP victory hinged on seizing a Democratic seat and saving Republican territory. In North Carolina, Tillis prevailed in the first category, picking off Hagan by a thin margin. The close contest was also the most expensive Senate race in history, topping the $100 million mark.

The heavy spending included outside groups pressing agendas that weren’t always clear. The pro-abortion group EMILY’s List spent millions on ads without mentioning abortion. Instead, the group focused on education and equal pay for women. Hagan seized that message as well, pounding what she called Tillis’ sweeping cuts to education while he served as a North Carolina state senator.

Tillis defended his record, while trying to keep the spotlight on national issues. He consistently tied Hagan to an increasingly unpopular president who carried the election in this state in 2008.

President Barack Obama proved an albatross for Democrats in many states, especially in other Southern contests. In Georgia, Democrat Michelle Nunn lost a race to gain a seat vacated by Republican Saxby Chambliss after a contest that appeared close during the campaign. But GOP candidate David Perdue won the state by seven points.

Nunn struggled during the campaign when asked about whether she supported Obama’s policies. Up until nearly the final day of the race, the candidate refused to say whether she would have voted for the Affordable Care Act—the president’s signature piece of healthcare legislation: “What I’ve said over and over again is that we need to look forward, and I don’t think we need to rehash battles from the last six years into the next two years.”

In Kentucky, the Obama-distancing was even sharper: Democratic candidate Alison Grimes refused to say whether she voted for Obama during the presidential elections. Grimes—who lost her race on Tuesday to Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell—said she was protecting her right to privacy in voting. But for a public figure running for a public seat, the secrecy on whether she voted for the leader of her own party may have proved too evasive for voters.

That leaves McConnell—who won his sixth term last night—as the top contender to become the Senate’s next majority leader. But any late night-celebrations come with a morning-after reality: Republicans who repudiated the president must now grapple with how to advance their own policies or avoid a shellacking of their own when the next elections roll around in two short years.