Global Grab: Election edition

This week, the Global Grab is going national, in honor of the Midterm elections. Republicans picked up 13 House seats, while also picking up seven Senate seats. To get the majority for the Senate, the Republicans needed to pick up six. So that means they’re firmly the majority. Many Democratic-leaning states, such as Maryland, Massachusetts and Illinois, picked up Republican governors. Politico is calling it the “Red Dawn.”

Here are the rundowns of some major races around the country.

Ohio: Republicans took all of the state’s highest ranking offices, with incumbnent John Kasic winning against Ed FitzGerald with 64 percent of the vote. To make things worse for the dems, the chair of the Democratic Party of Ohio, Chris Redfern, resigned after he lost his race for the 89th House district  seat. The repubulicans also took home two state supreme court spots.

New Hampshire: Democrat Jeanne Shaheen held onto her Senate seat, beating Scott Brown. His name may sound familiar, since he was a senator in Massachusetts before being ousted by current Senator Elizabeth Warren. There was a lot of controversy surrounding Brown’s latest run, since he wasn’t from New Hampshire. He qualified as a resident of the state because he has a vacation home there.

Kentucky: Another contentious Senate race took place in Kentucky, between Senate minority, now majority, leader Mitch McConnell and a new rising star in the Democratic Party, Alison Lundergan Grimes. Up until the election, the polls were very close, but McConnell had the edge. It turned out he did, as he won the seat 55.74 percent to Lundergan Grimes’ 41.19 percent.

Louisiana: With eight people on the ballot and one candidate needing to get over 50 percent of the vote, it was bound to be hard for any candidate to win Louisiana’s Senate seat.

However, early in the night, it was decided that there will be a two candidate runoff between Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu and Republican Bill Cassidy, which is supposed to take place on December 6. That means we won’t know who the majority in the Senate will be until December at the earliest.

North Carolina: This Senate race is considered to be the most expensive of the 2014 midterm elections, if not ever. Incumbent Democratic Senator Kay Hagan lost to Republican Thom Tillis by two points. Many Democrats were hopeful, even after the polls closed, that Hagan could pull out a victory, but Tillis thwarted those hopes.

Wisconsin: In one of the most contentious gubernatorial races in the country, incumbent Republican Gov. Scott Walker won his third election in four years. This was going to be a challenging race, since Walker was quite unpopular in Wisconsin due to abolishing unions, which led to a recall race in 2012 that he ultimately won. By holding on to the governorship, this puts Walker as a potentially strong presidential candidate in 2016.

Colorado: In another closely watched Senate races, it was another victory for the Republicans. Republican Rep. Cory Gardner beat Democratic Sen. Mark Udall. It was expected to be a close one, even though polls had Gardner winning within the margin of error.

As of the writing of this piece, the gubernatorial race in Colorado is much too close to call. Democrat incumbent John Hickenlooper was leading Republican Bob Beauprez 48 percent to 47.3 percent, with 92 percent of the votes counted, according to Talking Points Memo. Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler said there is a strong possibility the race could go to a recount.

However, voters in Colorado rejected the “personhood” ballot measure, which would have granted “personhood rights to developing fetuses from the moment of fertilization,” according to the Huffington Post. Colorado rejected the amendment 67 percent to 37 percent, the third time they voted down a “personhood” measure in the past few years.

Florida: This race was a strange one. It includes Charlie Crist, a former governor of Florida. When he was governor last time, he was a Republican, but in 2014, he ran as a Democrat. However, incumbent Republican Gov. Rick Scott held on and beat Crist in a close race.

In other news in Florida, the medicinal marijuana ballot initiative failed to get the required 60 percent “Yes” vote, so the measure failed.