Sen. Jeanne Shaheen on Tuesday fended off a stiff challenge from Republican Scott Brown in New Hampshire, allowing Democrats to breath a sigh of relief in what otherwise was shaping up to be a bleak election night.
Networks called the race for Mrs. Shaheen about an hour after polls closed.
The victory showed that Mrs. Shaheen, a former state senator and governor, was popular enough to overcome the anti-incumbent sentiment and President Obama’s poor approval numbers in the state.
“It seems reasonable to question whether Republicans really had a wave Tuesday night, because they were unable to win a Senate seat in a state that seems to always swing with the national political tides, New Hampshire,” said Kyle Kondik, of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. “In the end, hard-charging Scott Brown never was able to turn around his weak favorability numbers here, and the state elected to stick with the more well-liked incumbent even in a Republican year.
Mr. Brown, meanwhile, made the race closer than many expected after moving to the state late last year and being derided as a “carpetbagger” and political opportunist by Democrats.
Mr. Brown, who represented Massachusetts in the Senate from 2010 to 2013, proved to be a relentless campaigner in a state where people are used to visits from politicians and have come to demand candidate-to-voter contact. He also never missed an opportunity to tie Mrs. Shaheen to Mr. Obama.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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