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Atlanta With the walloping Republicans gave Democrats in the midterm elections, the GOP stands one Louisiana Senate runoff away from completely controlling Southern politics from the Carolinas to Texas. Only a handful of Democrats hold statewide office in the rest of the Old Confederacy.

The results put Southern Republicans at the forefront in Washington from Senate Majority Leader-in-waiting Mitch McConnell of Kentucky to a host of new committee chairmen. Those leaders and the rank-and-file behind them will set the Capitol Hill agenda and continue molding the GOP's identity heading into 2016.

In statehouses, consolidated Republican power affords the opportunity to advance conservative causes from charter schools and private school vouchers to expanding the tax breaks and incentive programs that define Republican economic policy. The outcome also assures that much of the South, at least for now, will remain steadfast in its refusal to participate in President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

"I think these new leaders can help drive the conservative movement" at all levels, said Louisiana Republican Party Chairman Roger Villere, echoing the celebrations of Republican leaders and activists across the region. "We just want a government that doesn't suppress people."

Republicans widely have acknowledged that the party now has to prove it can govern. But one-party rule invariably means internal squabbles. Republican White House hopefuls in particular must court Southern Republicans who are more strident than the wider electorate on issues ranging from immigration to abortion and the broader debate over the government's role and how to pay for it.

"The Republican presidential nomination will run through the South," said Ferrell Guillory, a Southern politics expert based at the University of North Carolina. "As Mitt Romney found (in 2012), that...makes it harder to build a national coalition once you are the nominee."

Even with the South's established Republican bent, Tuesday's vote yielded a stark outcome. Besides McConnell's wide margin, Republicans knocked off North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagan and Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor. In Louisiana, Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy is the heavy favorite to defeat Sen. Mary Landrieu in a Dec. 6 runoff.

Republicans reclaimed the governor's mansion in Arkansas and held an open Senate seat in Georgia that Democrats targeted aggressively.

In January, the GOP will control every governor's office, two U.S. Senate seats, nearly every majority-white congressional district and both state legislative chambers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas. Landrieu and Florida Sen. Bill Nelson are the only officials keeping their states from the list. At the northern periphery of the South, Kentucky's Legislature remains divided, and Democratic governors in Kentucky and West Virginia are in their final terms.

In Washington, Senate Republicans haven't parceled out leadership assignments, but Southerners figure prominently among would-be major committee chairmen: Mississippi's Thad Cochran (Appropriations); Alabama's Jeff Sessions (Budget) and Richard Shelby of Alabama (Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs); Bob Corker of Tennessee (Foreign Relations); Richard Burr of North Carolina (Intelligence); Lamar Alexander of Tennessee (Health, Education, Labor and Pensions); Johnny Isakson of Georgia (Veterans Affairs).

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Republicans now rule the South: What that means nationally

Despite postelection nods toward cooperation, Republicans, who will hold the majority in Congress next year, appear poised to clash with President Obama over a range of energy and environmental issues, including the controversial Keystone XL pipeline and important rules addressing climate change, smog and water pollution.

Congressional Republicans have long argued that environmental regulations kill jobs and that fossil fuel development, especially on federal lands, should be expanded.

Now they are in a position to blunt the administration's regulatory efforts on the environment while accelerating their own projects, such as the proposed extension of the Keystone XL pipeline, which has been criticized as environmentally unsound.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), expected to ascend to majority leader after winning reelection in part because of success in Kentucky coal country, told the Lexington Herald-Leader that his top priority would be "to try to do whatever I can to get the [Environmental Protection Agency] reined in."

Business allies predict that Republicans will rely on their oversight authority of the EPA, new legislation and inserts into unrelated must-pass bills to try to compel the president to accept their agenda.

If Republicans attach measures that would block or change environmental rules to budget proposals or other major legislation, the president "would be then confronted with a choice," said Scott Segal, a lobbyist for the energy industry in Washington. "'Do I essentially shut down the EPA or do I work with Republicans in the House and in the Senate to reform my proposal?'"

It remains unclear how Obama would respond to such tactics, though he has signaled since the election that he won't change his strategy for dealing with Congress. He has had advanced his environmental agenda through executive orders and agency rule-making.

Given what momentum the administration has on its environmental priorities, it has little incentive to back away from them, environmentalists said.

"In previous fights, the president has made it clear he will not be cowed by people trying to load up spending bills with provisions the public doesn't support," said David Goldston, lobbyist for the Natural Resources Defense Council. "In the past, the White House has stood up to that, and we are confident they will again."

The president has made global warming, in particular, a priority as he tries to shape his legacy, and the EPA's limits on heat-trapping emissions from cars and power plants are the most sweeping steps taken by any country to combat climate change.

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Republicans in Congress poised to clash with Obama over environment

Congratulations, Republicans! You won the Senate majority! Now, can you hold onto it for more than two years?

Looking at the 2016 Senate map, there's reason for some doubt. Im helping win the majority in 2014, and Im making the point that 2016s going to be a very different map for us, Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman, who is up in 2016, told the New York Times earlier this year.

He's right.

Republicans will have to defend 24 seats as compared to just 10 for Democrats in 2016. And, the raw numbers don't even tell the whole story. Seven seats currently held by Republican incumbents -- Florida,Illinois, Iowa, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin -- were all carried by President Obama in 2008 and 2012. And there is chatter about potential Republican retirements in Arizona and Iowa; if either John McCain or Chuck Grassley decided to call it a career, each of those races would be major Democratic targets.

On the other side of the coin, Republican takeover opportunities are few and far between. By far the most endangered Democrat is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid who survived in 2010 but could be facing Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval (R), who won a second term with more than 70 percent of the vote on Tuesday, in 2016. Reid has said he will run again although his demotion from Majority Leader to Minority Leader might make him rethink those plans. The only other Democrat who starts the 2016 cycle in serious jeopardy is freshman Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, who, like Reid, was a surprise winner in 2010. Sen.-elect Cory Gardner's (R) convincing win over Sen. Mark Udall (D) on Tuesday in the Rocky Mountain State will undoubtedly energize Republicans although it's less clear what the GOP bench looks like for a race against Bennet.

Outside of those two seats, there's almost no vulnerability on the Democratic side. Even if Sen. Barbara Boxer (Calif.) or Barbara Mikulski (Md.) decide not to run again, both sit in very, very Democratic states -- particularly at the federal level.

To win back the Senate majority in two years time will, likely, require Democrats to net four (if they hold the White House in 2016) or five (if they don't) seats. Republicans currently control 52 Senate seats in the 114th Congress but Sen. Mark Begich (D) is behind by 8,000 votes in Alaska and likely to lose, and Sen. Mary Landrieu's chances don't look great in Louisiana's Dec. 6 runoff.

Five seats is certainly not out of the question -- although it might be a bit of a stretch -- given the Senate map of 2016. Of the 10 most vulnerable seats listed below, Republicans hold eight.

The number one ranked race is the most likely to flip party control in 2016. To the Line!

The GOP gained control of the Senate Tuesday night, taking hold of the legislative agenda in that chamber. Here are three of the policies Republicans are likely to tackle as they take the reins in January 2015. (Julie Percha/The Washington Post)

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The Fix: Why Republicans Senate majority could be very short-lived

Newly empowered Republicans say they cant repeal Obamacare and plan to chip away at the law piece by piece, starting with redefining full-time work in a way that could affect health coverage for 1 million people.

House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell yesterday said they want to rewrite the Affordable Care Act so employers could avoid providing health coverage to workers who put in less than 40 hours a week -- up from the laws current 30-hour threshold.

The move is backed by business groups such as the National Retail Federation and the National Restaurant Association. The measure, which would face a presidential veto, would make it easier for employers to shift more workers to part-time status and avoid buying insurance or paying fines under a provision of the law taking effect at the end of the year.

The likely result: A million people would lose employer-paid health care and have to look for subsidized coverage on government insurance exchanges or go on Medicaid, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Thats just the opening round.

McConnell said after his party won control of the Senate in the Nov. 4 midterm election that Republicans wouldnt able to repeal the health-care law as long as Barack Obama is president and would instead seek to limit its scope.

Their strategy of choice will be piecemeal attempts to repeal parts of the statute, and its clear that the 40-hour rule may very well be part of that litany, said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a Washington-based advocacy group that supports the health-care law.

The maneuver taps into public anxiety that the law would create incentives for employers to reduce workers hours to avoid paying fines or purchasing insurance. The Republican leaders borrowed language from the labor movement, characterizing the proposal as an effort to restore the traditional 40-hour definition of full-time employment in an op-ed article published yesterday in the Wall Street Journal.

McConnell, of Kentucky, and Boehner, of Ohio, are returning to a proposal that the Republican-led House passed in April, with the support of 18 Democrats. The White House threatened a veto and the Democratic-controlled Senate never took up the legislation.

White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said Obama would reject the new effort to change the law.

The proposal they offered before, it kicked a lot of people off of health care and cost a lot of money, Pfeiffer told Bloomberg reporters and editors today in an interview. It was bad policy and bad for the American people.

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Republicans to Chip at Obamacare by Redefining Work Hours

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Washington (CNN) -- Two days after voters angry with Washington's dysfunction swept Republicans into control of the Senate and expanded their advantage in the House, Speaker John Boehner used his first post-midterm news conference to issue a "burn" notice to the commander-in-chief.

"When you play with matches, you take the risk of burning yourself and he's going to burn himself if he continues to go down that path," the Ohio Republican told reporters on the Hill, when asked about President Barack Obama's plans to issue executive orders on immigration before year's end.

Just hours after Obama recommitted himself to staying the course on immigration orders and protecting his signature health care law, Republicans spent Thursday firing back shots at the administration, signaling that Tuesday's midterms did little to quell partisan tension in Washington.

Republican National Committee members as well as GOP leaders on the Hill took the election results as a sign to dig in on their issues, and while both parties made reference to compromise, Thursday's developments suggested more of the opposite was in store.

Obama alone after midterm repudiation

Two of the most powerful Republicans in Washington, Boehner and the expected next Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, outlined their priorities in writing, using an oped in the Wall Street Journal to showcase their 2015 priorities. Among them: Repealing Obamacare, authorizing construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline and reforming the tax code.

The pair took shots at Democratic House and Senate leaders who shepherded most of Obama's significant legislative achievements through Congress, saying they "won't repeat the mistakes made when a different majority ran Congress in the first years of Barack Obama's presidency, attempting to reshape large chunks of the nation's economy with massive bills that few Americans have read and fewer understand."

And in his press conference, Boehner said the House will likely vote again next year to repeal the Affordable Care Act -- both in full and in separate chunks, like stripping away the medical device tax and the individual mandate.

Get ready: 2016 starts now

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Heated Republicans return fire at Obama