Kentucky Senate Race Won By Mitch McConnell

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was victorious over Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes (D) in one of the nation's highest-profile Senate contests on Tuesday.

The AP projected McConnell defeated Grimes shortly after the polls closed.

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 in Washington, including the push to repeal the Affordable Care Act, a government shutdown, and the battle over the debt ceiling, McConnell was widely expected to retain control of his seat. Public polling done in the last few weeks of the campaign, however, showed the Democrat within one or two points of the incumbent.

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