• Democrats make gains in Senate majority

    Despite needing to defend 23 seats, Democrats managed to retain control of the Senate, a feat that seemed unlikely when this election year began. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell reports.

    By M. Alex Johnson, NBC News

    Updated at 2:00 p.m. ET, Nov. 7: Democrats added another seat in the Senate on Wednesday, according to NBC News projections, strengthening their control of the Senate. 

    Democrat Heidi Heitkamp was declared the winner of the North Dakota senate race Wednesday, defeating Republican Rep. Rick Berg. See results

    Earlier, Democrat Jon Tester was declared the winner over Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg in Montana, a contest which saw an estimated $40 million spent in a state with fewer than 1 million residents. See results

    Those victories, which gave Democrats control of 53 seats in the Senate -- along with one independent, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who caucuses with them -- kept the party's edge in the upper chamber of Congress.

    Independent Angus King of Maine won an open Senate seat that had been held by Republican Olympia Snowe, NBC News projected. King could vote with the Democrats, though he hasn't yet said which party, if any, he will side with. 

    Maine independent promised to shake up Washington

    In one of the most hotly contested Congressional races, Democrat Elizabeth Warren won the Massachusetts Senate seat held by Republican Sen. Scott Brown, becoming the first woman to be elected to the Senate from that state. The senator-elect speaks with TODAY's Matt Lauer about her victory.

    With the House remaining in Republican hands, the makeup of the government will remain static: President Barack Obama was re-elected, but he will have to contend with a divided Congress for four more years.

    "Things like this are what happens when your No. 1 goal is to defeat the president and not work to get legislation passed," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said in a statement. 

    In a statement of his own, Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky challenged Obama to "propose solutions that actually have a chance of passing the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and a closely divided Senate."

    "To the extent he wants to move to the political center, which is where the work gets done in a divided government, we'll be there to meet him halfway," McConnell said.

    View complete Senate election results

    The Democrats clung to control on the back of a series victories in states that had been statistical ties in pre-election polls:

    Senators winning re-election

    NBC News projected that the following senators would win re-election:
    John Barrasso, R-Wyo.
    Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio
    Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.
    Ben Cardin, D-Md.
    Bob Casey, D-Pa.
    Tom Carper, D-Del.
    Bob Corker, R-Tenn.
    Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
    Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.
    Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.
    Tom Manchin, D-W.Va.
    Robert Menendez, D-N.J.
    Bill Nelson, D-Fla.
    Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
    Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.
    Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.
    Roger Wicker, R-Miss.

    • Harvard University law professor Elizabeth Warren ousted Republican Sen. Scott Brown in Massachusetts, NBC News projected. Massachusetts results
    • Republican state legislator Deb Fischer defeated former Sen. Bob Kerrey for the open seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson, NBC News projected. Nebraska results
    • Democratic former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine beat former Republican Gov. George Allen, NBC News projected, keeping the seat held by the retiring Sen. Jim Webb in Democratic hands. See results
    • Democratic Rep. Joe Donnelly of Indiana defeated Republican state Treasurer Richard Mourdock to claim the open seat held by Republican Dick Lugar, NBC News projected. Mourdock had been favored until he drew national opposition for having said in a debate last month that he believed that pregnancies resulting from rape were a "gift from God" and shouldn't be terminated. See results
    • Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill held on to her seat in Missouri after Republican Rep. Todd Akin made similar comments in a TV interview in August, suggesting that women's bodies could "shut down" a pregnancy that was the result of a "legitimate rape." See results

    Virginia Senator-elect Tim Kaine weighs in on what made the difference for him and the president in his state, how Obama plans to work with the GOP and why it may be a more cooperative relationship in this second term.

    As expected, Rep. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., defeated Republican former Rep. Heather Wilson to win the open seat of retiring Republican Jeff Bingaman, and Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., beat Republican former Gov. Tommy Thompson to become the nation's first openly gay senator, NBC News projected. New Mexico results 

    Thompson, who served as secretary of Health and Human Services in the administration of former President Geoorge W. Bush, announced his retirement from politics in his concession speech. Wisconsin results

    Wisconsin's Baldwin becomes first openly gay senator

    Democrats entered Tuesday with control 53 seats in the current Senate (that number included Sanders and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, an independent who also generally voted with them); Republicans held 47.

    Ten senators weren't seeking re-election this cycle — the most since 1996. In addition, Lugar lost to Mourdock in the Indiana Republican primary, meaning at least 11 new faces will join the Senate on Jan. 2.

    Exit polls: Majority of voters see America on wrong track

    Warren's victory was particularly sweet for Democrats, for whom she was a hero as the architect of Obama's U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

    "You took on the powerful Wall Street banks and special interests, and you let them know you want a senator who will be out there fighting for the middle class all of the time," she told cheering supporters in Boston.

    The races in Missouri and Indiana were also closely watched because of the controversies generated by Akin's and Mourdock's comments on abortion.

    McCaskill reveled in her victory, giving supporters a beaming I-told-you-so speech in St. Louis.

    "They all said it's over — it's done, it's too red, it's just too red," she said. "There is no way that Claire McCaskill can survive. Well, you know what happened? You proved them wrong."

    Akin told supporters in Missouri that he had called to congratulate McCaskill, but he sounded a defiant note:

    Todd Akin says that called Claire McCaskill to concede after being defeated in the Missouri Senate race.

    "I also think, in the circumstances that we've all been through, that it is particularly appropriate to thank God, who makes no mistakes and is wiser than we are," Akin said.

    "... Washington, D.C.'s first questions shouldn't be what's politically expedient, but what's right," he said. "Washington doesn't need more money. It needs more courage."

    Donnelly, meanwhile, stressed bipartisanship, telling supporters in Indianapolis that he hoped to follow in the moderate shoes of two predecessors, Lugar and Democrat Evan Bayh.

    "I say to all of my fellow Hoosiers out there: This isn't about politics. This isn't about one party or the other," Donnelly said.

    More election coverage from NBCNews.com:

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  • Kaine says he'd consider minimum income tax during Va. Senate debate

    By Michael O'Brien, NBC News

     

    Virginia Senate candidate Tim Kaine (D) suggested Thursday that he would be open to considering a minimum tax on Americans.

    Kaine, the former governor of Virginia and former Democratic National Committee chairman, said during a debate versus Republican opponent George Allen that he would be open to a minimum tax proposal.

    Evan Vucci / AP

    Republican candidate George Allen, right, speaks as Democratic candidate Tim Kaine looks on during a Senatorial debate for the Virginia U.S. Senate seat on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012 in McLean, Va.

    "I would be open to a proposal that would have some minimum tax level for everyone," Kaine said when pressed by debate moderator David Gregory on whether Americans should face a minimum federal income tax. "But I do insist, many of the 47 percent that Gov. Romney was going after pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes than he does."

    Kaine's remark came during a broader exchange about Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's comments that he couldn't count on about 47 percent of Americans to vote for him because they pay no income taxes and are "dependent" on government. Romney made those comments in May, which were surreptitiously recorded at the time and publicized this week.

    Romney's controversial suggestion has become an issue in several competitive Senate races, such as Connecticut and Massachusetts, where Republicans Linda McMahon and Sen. Scott Brown have (respectively) distanced themselves from Romney.

    Allen, the former Republican senator who lost his re-election bid in 2006, didn't as sharply distance himself from Romney. "I have my own view," he said about Romney's comments before pivoting to speak about jobs.

    The Kaine-Allen race is one of the most competitive in the nation this year; its outcome could foretell control of the Senate in the next Congress. Republicans need to achieve a net gain of four seats to win back the majority in the Senate.

    Last week's NBC News/Marist/Wall Street Journal poll of Virginia voters found the Senate race tied, at 46 percent apiece for Kaine and Allen.

    Whether Kaine's comments today have any lasting effect will play out in the next days and weeks, though Republican observers of today's debate -- which was organized by NBC-Washington affiliate WRC -- immediately took note of the minimum tax comments.

  • Democrats lead in two important Senate races, tied in a third

    By Michael O'Brien, NBC News

     

    While the presidential campaign remains the main event of the 2012 election season, a fierce, state-by-state battle is also underway to determine which party will control the U.S. Senate for the next two years.  And a series of NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist polls shows Democrats with an edge in two of the most closely-watched races and tied in a third.

    In Ohio and Florida, the Democratic candidate holds a solid lead, while in Virginia – where former governor and onetime DNC chairman Tim Kaine faces former Republican Sen. George Allen in a marquee battle – the candidates are in a dead heat.

    Republicans had entered the 2012 cycle with high hopes of winning all three races. All are seats currently held by Democrats, and winning any of them would advance the GOP toward the net gain of four seats they need to take back control of the Senate come January.

    In Virginia, Kaine and Allen are deadlocked at 46 percent apiece with likely voters.

    In Ohio, incumbent Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown leads Republican State Treasurer Josh Mandel 49 percent to 42 percent.

    And in Florida, two-term Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, leads GOP Rep. Connie Mack 51 percent to 37 percent. Twelve percent of Florida voters said they were undecided about the race.

    With only 54 days until the election, these three polls suggest that Republicans still have work to do if they wish to achieve their goal of retaking control of the Senate. Democrats must defend 23 of the 33 Senate seats on the ballot this fall, a numerical disadvantage that buoyed GOP hopes of reaching their goal early in the cycle, especially since many of the Democratic-held seats are also in hotly contested presidential battlegrounds.

    President Barack Obama leads Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in Virginia, Ohio and Florida, according to the same NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist polls released Thursday.

    Each of the Marist polls was conducted Sept. 9-11. Each poll has a 3.1 percent margin of error for its sample of likely voters. 

  • Virginia Senate debate: Kaine, Allen argue over taxes, spending, who is most partisan

    By NBC News and wire services

    Democrat Tim Kaine and Republican George Allen opened the fall debate season in Virginia's Senate race Saturday with a dispute over tax and spending policy that soon digressed into a partisan squabble over which candidate has been the most partisan.

    The two former governors in a marquee campaign that could determine partisan control of the Senate clashed in a 75-minute exchange before several hundred lawyers at the posh Homestead resort for the annual Virginia Bar Association's summer retreat.

    Allen, running to reclaim the Senate seat he lost to Democrat Jim Webb in 2006, hit Kaine on his support for federal spending cuts that could be ordered under a compromise the White House and House Republicans reached last summer for raising the limit on federal borrowing. 

    See the report at NBCWashington.com

    National defense could suffer $500 billion in cuts, and Virginia, home to the Pentagon and the world's largest Navy base in Norfolk, would suffer more than 200,000 job losses, Allen said.

    "The result? Disproportionate defense cuts that would be disproportionate to Virginia's economy and our military,'' he said, pressing Kaine to defend the compromise -- a deal that also had the blessing of Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia.

    Kaine struck back, calling Allen a profligate spender during his term as governor from 1994 to 1998, when the state's budget grew by 45 percent, and in a GOP-ruled Congress that quickly converted former President Bill Clinton's budget surpluses into trillions in federal deficits. "

    He voted for two wars (Afghanistan and Iraq) without any concern about how we would pay for it. He voted for expensive tax cuts, not caring how we would pay for it,'' Kaine said. Turning toward Allen, he added, "You talk like a fiscal conservative, but you never governed like one.''

    Allen countered that by the time he left the Senate after 2006, the government was "on a trajectory toward a balanced budget.'' He said he was in a minority of 15 senators who opposed Alaska's "bridge to nowhere,'' one of the most infamous federal earmarks to win congressional approval during Allen's Senate tenure.

    Early in the debate, Allen and Kaine sketched a few clear policy distinctions. Kaine said he favored a blend of cuts and revenue for reducing federal deficits -- $3 in spending reductions for every $1 of new taxes. Allen, prodded by debate moderator Candy Crowley of CNN, rejected any additional taxes, not even at a ratio of $10 in cuts for every $1 of higher taxes.

    Kaine said he would allow tax cuts that President George W. Bush put in place to expire on those who earn $500,000 or more a year, double the threshold Obama set. Allen called it a massive tax increase and called for keeping the cuts in place at every income level.

    For a moment, there was even partisan harmony. Both voiced sorrow and outrage at Friday's movie theater massacre in Aurora, Colo., and advocated better background checks to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill. Allen even praised Kaine's handling as governor of the worst mass shooting in U.S. history at Virginia Tech in April 2007.

    By the final third of the debate, however, the dialogue became much more acerbic, partisan and personal.

    Republicans have sought to handcuff Kaine to Obama and his liberal policies. Allen accurately called Kaine Obama's hand-picked DNC chairman, but then rankled Kaine by saying he is, "in effect (Obama's) hand-picked senator, recruited to run for the Senate ...''

    Kaine interrupted Allen.

    "I am highly offended at that. I am campaigning full-time for 19 months with the support of my family. For you to say I am hand-picked by somebody else rather than doing it myself is completely out of line,'' Kaine said.

    Allen, who courted his party's conservative base in the primary, has sought to soften his partisan image since winning the nomination in June.

    So Kaine confronted Allen on his support for an anti-abortion measure that would extend the legal rights of personhood to human embryos from the moment of conception. Critics of "personhood'' legislation say it would not only end abortion rights should the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling be overturned, it could also deny women certain forms of birth control.

    "Why would you claim to be a small-government guy and propose what would be such a dramatic reach into people's personal lives and moral decisions?'' Kaine asked.

    Having stumbled over the same question in a December one-on-one debate with Kaine, Allen explained that his proposal is not intended to interfere with contraception.

    "It's about protecting an unborn child and its mother,'' he said. It would hold attackers criminally accountable for assaults on women that kill or injure her fetus, no matter its gestational age.

    A new Quinnipiac University poll released this week put the race as a dead heat.

    This article includes reporting by The Associated Press and NBC4 Washington.