Tea Party-backed candidates win first U.S. Senate seats

Tea Party-backed candidates win first U.S. Senate seats

2010-11-03 07:20:24 GMT+7 (ICT)

WASHINGTON, D.C. (BNO NEWS) -- Tea Party-backed Rand Paul in Kentucky and former Senator Dan Coats in Indiana became the first candidates supported by the Tea Party movement to win Senate seats in the U.S. mid-term elections on Tuesday.

With Dan Coats' win, Democrats lost one U.S. Senate seat to Republicans who need ten new seats to take control of the Senate. Marco Rubio, also a Tea Party-backed candidate, is projected to win the Florida Senate race.

Among other results, Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy is projected to win in Vermont while Republican Senator Jim DeMint is projected to win in South Carolina.

In New Hampshire, Republican Kelly Ayotte is projected to win the Senate race while Democrat John Lynch was elected the state's new governor. In Delaware, Democratic candidate Chris Coons is projected to win over the controversial Tea Party-backed candidate Christine O'Donnels.

Democrat Barbara Mikulski was projected to win the Delaware Senate race and Republican Richard Shelby was projected to win the Alabama Senate race.

The Tea Party has endorsed 129 candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives and 9 for the Senate, all of whom are running as Republicans.

As of 8.20 p.m. EDT, 46 House races were called, of which 37 for Republicans and nine for Democrats who gained at least one seat.

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