While the Democrats lost more seats in the House of Representatives, and lost 8-9 seats in the US Senate and majority control as a result, there WERE Democratic triumphs worthy of mention!
Jeanne Shaheen won a second term in the Senate, defeating Scott Brown in the New Hampshire Senate race.
Al Franken won a second term in the Senate in Minnesota.
Jeff Merkley won a second term in the Senate in Oregon.
Dick Durbin won a fourth term in the Senate in Illinois.
Chris Coons won a second term in the Senate in Delaware.
Ed Markey won a first full term in the Senate in Massachusetts, after having a special election victory in 2013 to replace Secretary of State John Kerry.
Cory Booker won a full Senate term in New Jersey.
Tom Udall won a second Senate term in New Mexico.
Jack Reed won a fourth Senate term in Rhode Island.
Mark Warner won a second Senate term in Virginia after a very close race with Ed Gillespie.
Brian Schatz won the remainder of a full term in the Senate from Hawaii.
Gary Peters was a new Senator elected in Michigan, to replace retiring Senator Carl Levin.
In the Governorship elections, Andrew Cuomo in New York and Jerry Brown in California won major victories, and also, Democrats kept or gained control of Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont–a total of ten victories. Their biggest win, however, was Tom Wolf, defeating Tom Corbett, making Pennsylvania, the sixth largest state, run by Democrats again!
It is not that Democrats have a total great number of victories, but it is worth mentioning that they are far from giving up on regaining the Senate in 2016, and many Governorships are likely to go to the Democrats as part of a “wave”, helped along by the strong likelihood of a Democratic Presidential nominee winning in 2016, and by a substantial majority in the Electoral College!
Excellent summary, Ronald!
My favorite was the Democratic pickup of the governorship of Pennsylvania as Tom Wolf unseated incumbent Republican Tom Corbett.
This is important; not just because of the rank in states (Pa. is No. 6), but because the Keystone State has been on a pattern of electing governors belonging to the party opposite that of an incumbent president since 1938. That beginning year 1938 and this current 2014 are 76 years’ and 20 cycles’ worth of midterm congressional elections. The other break in pattern was in 1982 (re-election of Pa.’s 41st Governor, a Republican, Dick Thornburgh).
The fact that midterm elections boast 36 gubernatorial elections accounts for 72 percent of the available states scheduling elections for their governors in midterm years. The significant drop-off in participation, kept in mind by everyone generally aware of this, leaves us with a limited electorate electing who leads a state and the ignorant, perhaps, trying to figure out why. In fact, of the Top 10-ranked populous states—which are California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Georgia, Michigan, and North Carolina—only the Tar Heel State doesn’t elect its governor in a midterm year. N.C. holds it gubernatorial elections in presidential cycles. And, because we get the closest-to-fullest participation in presidential years, I think all states should be following suit.
I also will salute the fact that Ann Kuster was re-elected in the U.S. House of Representatives for New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional District. She overcame a midterm wave following one for which she couldn’t. In 2010, Kuster ran for the first time for the U.S. House of Representatives. Because both of N.H.’s districts flipped from Democratic to Republican, the Granite State has a see-saw like effect where the abilities to win U.S. House elections for the likes of Republicans (Charlie Bass and Frank Guinta were 2010 pickups for N.H. #01 and #02, respectively) and Democrat (like seasoned vet Carol Shea-Porter) are measured by the weather conditions—the national mood of the electorate which has much on the outcomes of N.H.’s two congressional districts’ elections races. Kuster wasn’t able to win a first term in 2010 because, in much part, it was a Republican wave election for which the party won majority-control pickup of the U.S. House. She did unseat Carlie Bass in 2012. That was a remarkable time for which N.H. became the first state to see women represent the top of the state and federal levels: Maggie Hassan, re-elected in 2014 as N.H.’s 81st Governor; Jeanne Shaheen, the first woman in the history of N.H. elected to the governorship and the U.S. Senate, who was re-elected the state’s senior U.S. senator; Kelly Ayotte, elected the U.S. Senate in 2010; and the 2012 Democratic pickups of Carol Shea-Porter and Ann Kuster. Shea-Porter didn’t survive her bid to win re-election in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District. Kuster, on the other hand, prevailed weathered the tide and was re-elected with about 55 percent of her district’s vote. That was actually better than her first-election win, in 2012, when Kuster received 50 percent of the vote and a five-point margin of victory. Evidently, even though I didn’t follow that particular district’s race during the election season, Ann Kuster has been doing a number of things right—and the district rewarded her with a second consecutive term. Maybe it’s because Kuster is liberal.