A First Look at Last Week's Election Results

Where do we even start? Last week, history was made. Republicans have won at least 60 additional seats in the U.S. house (and possibly up to 65 pending a few unsettled races), racking up the largest gains of any party since 1948 - far outpacing their performance in the Republican Revolution of 1994. While the GOP did not gain an outright majority in the Senate, they did gain 6 seats, bringing their numbers up to 46 in that legislative body. The GOP also made incredible gains in statehouses around the county - the GOP now dominates in Wisconsin, Michigan, New Hampshire, and Maine - all former Democratic strongholds. While the Democratic Party attempts to use diversity as a wedge issue and argument for quota-driven policy, the GOP welcomed the election of members of all backgrounds:

• 2 Republican African Americans elected to the U.S. House
• The first Latino woman governor of any state (Susanna Martinez, New Mexico)
• The first Indian-American woman governor of any state (Nikki Haley, South Carolina)
• A young and rising Republican star in Cuban-American Marco Rubio of Florida, U.S. Senate

And many other new faces of all backgrounds and races. Too many victories to name them all, but winning Obama's Senate seat in Illinois was also a major coup!

Here in KS, we also made history. We elected a Republican governor and Republican candidates swept all statewide offices (Secretary of State, Treasurer, Insurance Commissioner, and Attorney General). Republicans posted large gains in the statehouse races increasing their numbers by 16 seats, increasing an already large 76-49 seat margin to a blowout 92-33 seat margin, a history-making feat since the last time the GOP held such a super-majority in Topeka was in 1954 when fellow Kansan, Dwight Eisenhower was president! Here in Johnson County, 5 of the 6 incumbent Democratic state legislators were crushed by their Republican opponents, leaving one, lone delegate in the 22-member house delegation from Johnson County.

Our next series of blog postings will analyze some of these local races in greater detail.