epublicans made significant gains in Senate races in the South yesterday, picking up seats in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Louisiana and beating back a strong challenge in Kentucky, which left them well-positioned to retain their majority control.
In two gains for the Democrats, Barack Obama, the state senator from Illinois who emerged as one of his party's brightest stars at last summer's Democratic convention, handily won his race for the United States Senate. He will become only the third black senator since Reconstruction. In Colorado, Ken Salazar, the Democratic state attorney general, beat Peter H. Coors, the beer magnate, to become the fourth Hispanic senator in history. There are no Hispanics in the Senate now; the last, Joseph Montoya, a New Mexico Democrat, left in 1977.
But three races were too close to call. The Democrats' leader, Senator Tom Daschle, was locked in a fierce struggle in South Dakota, in a race fraught with political symbolism as his opponent, former Representative John Thune, served as a proxy for the White House.
In Alaska, Senator Lisa Murkowski, who was appointed to her seat by her father, the current governor, was facing a stiff challenge from Tony Knowles, the former Democratic governor. Nepotism was the main issue in this contest. Alaska has not sent a Democrat to the Senate in more than two decades.
And in Florida, Mel Martinez, a Cuban ŽmigrŽ and Republican candidate, was locked in a dead heat against Betty Castor, a former state education official.
Republicans, weary but clearly relieved, were declaring victory in the battle for both the Senate and the House. The Republicans maintained and perhaps slightly enlarged their majority in the House with the help of a disputed redistricting plan in Texas that sent several longtime Democratic incumbents to defeat.
In the Senate, a string of Democratic retirements in the South created a critical opening for the Republicans.
"We've definitely retained the majority,'' Senator George Allen, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said early this morning as he awaited a few last results from Western states.
Reflecting conservative strength in the Sun Belt states, Republican victories by Representative James W. DeMint in South Carolina and former Representative Tom Coburn in Oklahoma added two staunch conservatives to the Republican ranks. In Louisiana, another conservative, Representative David Vitter, barely avoided a runoff in a multicandidate race to replace the Democratic veteran, Senator John B. Breaux, who is retiring.
And in North Carolina, Representative Richard M. Burr, a Republican, defeated Erskine Bowles, the former Clinton chief of staff, for the seat left vacant by Senator John Edwards, who ran for vice president.
In Georgia, Johnny Isakson, a House member from the Atlanta suburbs, easily won the seat being vacated by Senator Zell Miller, the conservative Democrat who was retiring as an angry critic of his own party.
Republicans also eked out a victory in Kentucky, where Senator Jim Bunning, a baseball hall of famer, had committed several verbal gaffes in the last few weeks and saw his once-comfortable lead over Dr. Daniel Mongiardo vanish. One thing Mr. Bunning said was that his opponent looked like one of Saddam Hussein's sons, a comment for which he later apologized.
Most Senate incumbents easily won re-election. Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York rolled up a lopsided victory, as expected, with strong majorities across the state over his main opponent, Assemblyman Howard D. Mills of Goshen.
The marquee Senate race was in South Dakota, where Mr. Daschle, the Democratic leader, was struggling to hold onto the seat he has held for 18 years after a bruising campaign against Mr. Thune, a race expected to come down to just a few thousand votes. Elections officials were bracing for a long night of tallying absentee ballots by hand.
At 56, Mr. Daschle has been the Democratic leader for 10 years, and a loss would be a huge psychological blow to his party. He raised more than $18 million for his campaign, flooding the state with television advertisements to remind voters of the millions in federal grant money he has taken home to South Dakota.
But Mr. Thune hit back hard, characterizing Mr. Daschle as "the chief obstructionist" to President Bush's agenda, and out of touch with the values of ordinary South Dakotans.
If Mr. Daschle loses, he will be the first Senate leader to do so since 1952, when Senator Ernest W. McFarland, the Arizona Democrat who was majority leader, lost to Barry Goldwater.
At least two Democrats have been discussed as possible successors as minority leader: Senator Harry Reid of Nevada and Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut.
