Democrats took control of the House of Representatives and split the Senate in an attempt to gain control of Congress for the first time in 12 years during Tuesday’s closely contested midterm election.
The former minority party picked up 27 seats in the House, giving it a majority Tuesday evening and prompting celebration from party leaders who framed the win as a referendum on President Bush’s policy on the war in Iraq.
But the Senate remained too close to call as of midnight, with candidates in two states – Virginia and Montana – within two percentage points of one another.
Montana, Missouri, Tennessee and Virginia held the keys to the outcome of control in Senate for Democrats at 9 p.m., but by 11 p.m., Missouri was called for the Democrats and Tennessee had gone to the Republicans.
Democrats needed to hold on to all of their seats and to gain 15 in the House, which had 435 seats up for grabs. They needed six of 33 contested seats in the Senate.
In Oregon, Democratic U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio managed to hold onto his seat for an 11th term, extending his stint representing District Four to 22 years.
“I think this was a national referendum,” he said. “I think our people have had enough.”
He’ll be joined in Washington, D.C., by incumbent Democratic Reps. David Wu of the first district, Earl Blumenauer of the third district and Darlene Hooley of the fifth district.
Greg Walden won in the second district, making him the only victorious Republican representative in Oregon.
Republican candidate Jim Feldkamp, DeFazio’s challenger, said he called DeFazio to congratulate him.
“Needless to say, I’m a little disappointed, and you’ve got to take your lumps,” he said. “The voters decided to give Mr. DeFazio another two years, and the voters are the ones who decide.”
Feldkamp lost to DeFazio by 42,030 CQ votes, whereas he lost by 66,080 CQ when he ran against him in 2004.
Virginia saw an extremely close Senate race between Sen. George Allen, a Republican, and Democrat Jim Webb, with 7,720 giving Webb the lead. If final numbers reflect a less-than-one percent margin, Virginia law allows the loser to ask for a recount.
In a speech Tuesday night, Allen said he won his first election by 18 votes. He announced he would head for bed after deciding the outcome of the race would not be determined Tuesday night.
“The world is controlled by those who show up, and we talked about how important it was to get every vote turned in,” Allen said.
In the nationally watched race between Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse and Republic incumbent Lincoln Chafee, Whitehouse ended the evening victorious with 53 percent CQ of the vote.
In Tennessee, however, Democratic challenger Harold Ford Jr. CQ could not best Republican Sen. Bob Corker CQ.
A split in Senate might inhibit the sweeping change many Democrats said would happen.
“If Senate is split, it’ll mean Dick Cheney will vote to break a lot of ties and we’ll see if the administration won’t start a new path and will try to block change,” DeFazio said.
Outcomes of control in the Senate would make a difference, said University political science professor Eric McGhee.
“Obviously, it’s incredibly important. Controlling committees in Senate will control the policy outcomes we see,” he said. “Republican chairs are considerably more conservative than Democrats would be.”
Democrats took Senate seats from Republicans in Ohio, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., became the first female speaker of the House.
She will be a strong force, DeFazio said.
“Nancy Pelosi is going to be a tremendous leader for Congress and the country,” he said.
Pelosi spoke to Democrats after her victory was announced.
“Tonight is a great victory for the American people,” she said. “Today, the American people voted for change, and they voted for Democrats to take our country in a new direction. And that is exactly what we intend to do.”
She also called on Bush to provide “a new direction in Iraq.”
“He has not honored our commitment to our troops and has not made the region more stable,” she said. “We cannot continue down this catastrophic path.”
White House spokesman Tony Snow said the Democratic victory in the House was not shocking to the administration.
“The president’s not the kind of guy who is going to be somber about things,” he said. “They have not gone the way he would have liked.”
Throughout election season, Republicans insisted Democrats were liberals who would increase taxes, flee from Iraq and be lenient on terrorism.
In a speech from the Democratic national campaign headquarters shortly before 9 p.m., Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., said his party will “lend a hand of cooperation to the president, to our colleagues across the aisle.”
“The American people never lose their zeal for reform and neither can we,” he said. “The old era of irresponsibility is over, and the new era of real reform is just begun.”
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The Associated Press contributed to this report