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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was projected to defeat Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes (D) by CNN, MSNBC and NBC in one of the nation's highest-profile Senate contests on Tuesday.
The five-term senator, who spent 30 years in the Senate, relentlessly portrayed Grimes as beholden to President Barack Obama, who remains extremely unpopular in parts of the red state. Grimes, on the other hand, made the case that Kentucky needed fresh ideas and a senator who would focus on the needs of Kentuckians rather than the partisan trenches of Washington.
Despite his high unpopularity due to several partisan fights, including the push to repeal the Affordable Care Act and the government shutdown, McConnell was widely expected to retain control of his seat, and possibly even become Majority Leader. Public polling done in the last few weeks of the campaign, however, showed the Democrat surging.
Notable moments just weeks before Election Day included Grimes' painful refusal to say whether she voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012, as well as McConnell's repeated dodging on whether he would support eliminating federal subsidies for Kynect, the state health insurance exchange set up under Obamacare.
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