Mitch McConnell Wins Reelection, Could Become Senate Majority Leader If Republicans Take Chamber

Republican Mitch McConnell wins a hard-fought reelection campaign in Kentucky, according to multiple projections. That would position himself as the Senate Majority Leader-in-waiting should his party win control of the chamber.

McConnell, currently the Senate Minority Leader, was considered endangered earlier in the campaign cycle due to his deep unpopularity in the state. But recent polls showed him bouncing back to lead his Democratic challenger, 35-year-old secretary of state Alison Lundergan Grimes.

Grimes came under criticism when she refused to acknowledge whether she had voted for President Barack Obama, who lost Kentucky by wide margins in both 2008 and 2012. But she was an Obama delegate to the Democratic National Convention and has been a Democratic state official.

Mitch McConnell wins reelection despite having served in the Senate for 35 years, he also tried to shift the focus from his unpopular image as a longtime Washington incumbent to an opposition leader harnessing voter anger with the status quo.

“The only thing they can do in 2014 to begin to change the direction of the country is to change the makeup of the Senate,” he told CNN earlier this fall.

That argument was made easier by the fact that McConnell will be in line to become Majority Leader if his party wins the Senate. That’s an outcome many campaign watchers and polls have been predicting for weeks, if not months.

That air of inevitability appeared to be validated Tuesday evening as results started rolling in. The Associated Press reported that Republican Shelley Moore Capito had won the open West Virginia Senate seat. Jay Rockefeller had been the longtime Democrat, but decided to retire at the end of this year.

Republicans need to capture six seats from the Democrats in order to win control of the Senate. Given the expectation that they will maintain control of the House, that would mean a solidly GOP Congress for Obama’s final two years in office.

CNN’s exit poll in Kentucky found that 86% of voters there saw “party control” as a key issue. Of those, Mitch McConnell wins over half, who are apparently banking on the clout that he built over decades in Washington despite strong disgust with incumbents generally.

[photo credit: Talk Radio News Service]

Mitch McConnell Wins Reelection, Could Become Senate Majority Leader If Republicans Take Chamber