Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell gets early victory after bitter race

Reporting from Louisville, Ky. —  Throughout his career, Mitch McConnell has left little to chance and vowed never to be caught by surprise. That approach guided his 2014 reelection campaign against Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes — but perhaps a bit too well.

In what was one of the nation’s most bitter and expensive races, preelection polls showed the Kentucky contest to be no more than a single-digit race, though McConnell rarely trailed. And so, few at his election night party were ready for the news of a McConnell victory when it came almost immediately after polls closed across the state.

Finally, it seems, the McConnell team was caught by surprise.

Aides lingering in the halls of the Louisville hotel suddenly bolted backstage to share the news as it reached their in-boxes. Meanwhile, hundreds of supporters enjoying popcorn, finger sandwiches and beverages of all sorts carried on unaware as country music played overhead.

McConnell, elected to his sixth term, took the stage 90 minutes later, declaring that Kentucky voters had sent a message that “we can do better as a nation.”

“Tonight they said we can have real change in Washington — real change. And that’s just what I intend to deliver,” he said.

Hours earlier McConnell had seemed at ease as he navigated the frenzy of media gathered to watch him cast his vote at a university. With typical understatement, he predicted it would be “a good day for Republicans.”

That doesn’t mean the day was without its share of indignities.

As cameras snapped away while he cast his ballot, a voter two booths behind him signaled his disapproval of the Republican with a thumbs-down gesture. One of the shots was quickly circulated by the Grimes campaign. It was a reminder that although Kentucky was decidedly a red state in federal elections, McConnell’s hometown of Louisville was a reliable shade of blue.

Earlier, McConnell’s hometown newspaper, the Courier-Journal (he dismissively refers to it as the “Curious Journal”), featured an advertisement for Grimes wrapped around the front page, prominently featuring the paper’s endorsement of the Democrat in large, bold letters.

McConnell clearly savored the victory all the more because of how difficult it was — not just in the general election, but in the Republican primary when he faced a wealthy businessman running to his right.

But the 72-year-old was in no mood to gloat, publicly at least. He praised Grimes for having the “guts” to enter the race against him, saying she’d earned his respect. And even as he criticized the approach President Obama and his fellow Democrats had taken, he said he was willing to work with them for the nation’s good.

“Just because we have a two-party system doesn’t mean we have to be in perpetual conflict,” he said.

McConnell said he believed he had shown he can negotiate in good faith and find agreement on difficult issues. “I hope the president gives me the chance to show it again.”

The victory party had the air of a presidential campaign event. Speaking as part of the program was the star of a television ad that his campaign credits with helping to boost his personal approval ratings: Noelle Hunter, an African American who says she voted twice for Obama. In the ad, she told the story of how McConnell interceded to help bring her daughter back to the U.S. from Mali in the midst of a custody dispute. McConnell later joked that she achieved something “remarkable: She made me seem all warm and cuddly.”

But McConnell’s junior Senate colleague and fellow Republican, Rand Paul, was more defiant. Speaking earlier, he called McConnell’s victory “a repudiation of President Obama’s policies and his leadership.” A Republican Senate should be aggressive in taking on Obama, Paul said.

“Under Mitch McConnell’s leadership we will send the president bill after bill until he wearies of it,” he said. “If the president rejects the will of the people, if the president insists on vetoing bill after bill, then in 2016 the people will rise up and reclaim our heritage and elect a lover of liberty who will restore the values of our founding fathers.”

The room erupted at the idea.

With McConnell’s victory secured earlier than expected, he and his aides turned after his celebration to monitoring other races across the country that would determine whether he would become the majority leader, and by how many seats.

McConnell, the patron of his state’s GOP, was also keeping track of local races as the party eyed a takeover of the state House of Representatives.

And with a double-digit victory seemingly in hand, the campaign was watching a few key counties that McConnell had not managed to win in the past but was on track to capture Tuesday night.

A pleasant surprise.