LOS ANGELES, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Democrats can't console themselves with the idea that the strong Republican showing stemmed not from a sizable swing to the GOP, but from the Republicans happening to win a lot of close elections.
The strong showing for the GOP was no fluke: The GOP racked up relatively large advantages in the total national vote. It was definitely not a landslide, but in a year when the smart money was expecting a 50-50 outcome, the Republican margin over the Democrats in overall votes cast was noteworthy.
As of around dawn today, with about 97 percent of precincts reporting across the nation, in the 36 gubernatorial races Republican candidates in aggregate had won 52.8 percent of the two-party vote to 47.2 percent for the Democrats. (That's ignoring 3rd party votes for the sake of simplicity.)
In the 34 senatorial elections, Republicans in total attracted 52.2 percent of the two-party vote vs. 47.8 percent for the Democrats.
And in the 435 House contests, the GOP took 53.4 percent to only 46.6 percent for the Democrats. This nearly 7-percentage-point margin in the House compared impressively to the narrow 1.2-point advantage the Republicans enjoyed in the House in the 2000 voting.
