After years of anti-Bush and pro-Obama surges, Republicans began to recapture Senate seats in traditionally red states Tuesday as part of what analysts said is a swing toward what should be a natural GOP majority in the upper chamber of Congress.
Although messaging and money mattered, the general tilt of the election was defined early by the number of GOP-leaning states. The only question was whether Republicans would gain enough to win at least 51 seats, or a majority, in the Senate.
Were seeing the inevitable, irresistible drive of statistics to find its settling point, and these states are reverting back to what they are: Republican states electing statewide Republican officials, said Michael McKenna, a Republican strategist who has tracked Senate trends.
SEE ALSO: Tea party, establishment Republicans set for showdown over 2016 nominee
Indeed, that was exactly what some voters said they were doing when they went to the polls in places such as West Virginia and South Dakota, which shook off longtime Democratic senators and embraced Republicans in what was a calculated party recalibration.
In the last presidential race, West Virginia was a red state. I think we should also have a red senator, Rikki Twyford, 35, said as she cast her ballot in Charles Town for the Republican nominee, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito.
West Virginia has been trending Republican for more than a decade and voted Republican in every presidential election since 2000, but both of its U.S. senators were Democrats.
One of those, Sen. Joe Manchin III, is the most conservative in the Senate. The other, Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, is surrendering his seat after 30 years, and Democrats put up only token opposition.
Louisiana and Arkansas are also in the midst of a Republican transformation, trailing other Southern states by a decade or so.
But Merle Black, a political scientist at Emory University, said Republicans shouldnt count on a presumptive majority.
Originally posted here:
Republican Senate wins in red states reflect a natural recalibration