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Gingrich: 'Never Trump' Republicans 'whiny, sniveling negative cowards'

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich slammed Republicans who refused to back Donald Trump during the general election as "whiny, sniveling negative cowards" Wednesday night, less than 24 hours after Trump was elected president.
"[A] Donald Trump [administration is] going to be among the most extraordinary, creative, inventive, exciting periods in all of American political history," Gingrich told Fox News' Sean Hannity on "Hannity". "Let [the 'Never Trump' movement] drift off into the ashbin of history while we go ahead and work with Donald Trump and with the House and Senate Republicans to create a dramatically new future."
A number of Republican officials, including Senators Ben Sasse and Mike Lee, refused to back the real estate mogul for president, citing concerns about his temperament and past indiscretions.
Gingrich also warned that some GOP lawmakers would try to sidetrack Trump's agenda in Congress.
"Their technique will be to say ‘Oh, be reasonable. Don’t push too hard. Don’t force the issue. Find a compromise with Democrats. Maybe he shouldn’t name one of the [potential Supreme Court] justices who are conservative who’s on his list. Maybe he should find a nice moderate acceptable to the Democrats,'" said Gingrich. "Down that road is a disaster. And so we have to be aware that the danger is not that they’re going to actively fight. The danger is that they’re going to opt for honeyed words of subversion."
Gingrich identified border security and infrastructure as two issues that were likely to be the first priority of a Trump administration.
"I would suggest," he said, "that a really dramatic infrastructure program will get at least half the Democrats to sign up for it and be exactly in the job-creating direction that Donald Trump has talked about for a year-and-a-half.

Trump election raises big questions for ObamaCare, immigration, Supreme Court

President-elect Donald Trump hasn’t minced words about what legacy legislation would be on the chopping block from President Obama's administration.
From the start, Trump has vowed to repeal ObamaCare within his first 100 days in office. His upset victory early Wednesday immediately raises thorny questions about what’s next for a range of hot-button issues – from the vacancy on the Supreme Court to pending trade deals to immigration policy to health care.
The Affordable Care Act, commonly known as ObamaCare, has been a GOP target for many years. Trump claimed in the last few weeks of the election that he might even call a special session of Congress to get it done.
“We will do it, and we will do it very, very quickly,” he promised, discussing the ACA. “It’s a catastrophe.”
Now that he's the president-elect, and Republicans who have tried doggedly for years to repeal the law have retained control of the House and Senate, the party has a potential pathway to unravel the ACA.
"With unified Republican government, we can fix this," House Speaker Paul Ryan said of ObamaCare on Wednesday.
Amid spiking premium costs, Ryan also told The Washington Post Wednesday that the law is "collapsing under its own weight."
Beyond Republicans' blunt opposition to ObamaCare, there are few specifics on how the dismantling and rebuilding of a national health care system would look.
But supporters like Families USA, a liberal consumer-health lobby, organized a midafternoon call with hundreds of ObamaCare advocates in about 40 states to start mapping a grassroots campaign to fend off challenges from a Trump administration.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Obama will have the chance to discuss these policies with Trump but said the president's top priority is not his legacy but the millions of Americans who got health insurance under the law.
RBC Royal Bank analyst Frank Morgan said the impact of a Trump win “would likely inject an unhealthy dose of uncertainty” for the health care industry.
During the first quarter of this year, the rate of the country’s uninsured fell below 9 percent for the first time to 8.6 percent.
Still, premium spikes for 2017 are being felt by millions, and helped fuel Trump's presidential bid in the final weeks.
Trump’s victory on Wednesday also has major consequences for the makeup of the Supreme Court. Obama’s outgoing pick, Judge Merrick Garland, appeared certain not to make the bench; Trump’s victory will likely pave the way for the nine-member court to be restored to full capacity, with the court once again leaning right.
“Trump's decisive, map-realigning victory, was in large part won by his focus on the Supreme Court issue,” Ken Blackwell, former Ohio secretary of state who is on the board of numerous conservative organizations, told FoxNews.com. “The American people showed their rejection and disdain for adding more liberals to the Court by voting to re-elect a Republican Senate.”
Blackwell believes Trump’s position on the Supreme Court "seriously and publicly demonstrated his approach to governing when he announced repeatedly that he asked America's pre-eminent legal experts associated with The Federalist Society to provide him a list of the most qualified and experienced judges with solid records of jurisprudence.”
Another Obama legacy item on the line is the Trans Pacific Partnership. The 12-member free-trade agreement pushed by the Obama administration as a way to deepen economic ties has been knocked multiple times by Trump. He has vowed to ditch the deal when sworn in.
“TPP is now in the history dustbin for sure,” Gary Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told POLITICO Pro. Other trade initiatives including the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and the Trade in Services Agreement are also likely to fall by the wayside.
Whether Trump will follow through on some of his more controversial comments on immigration – building a wall and making Mexico pay for it – as well as his call for "extreme vetting" for immigrants from terror-prone countries has yet to be seen.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus downplayed concerns over a mass deportation during an appearance on MSNBC and said, “I think everyone learns as they go through this process.”
He added, “(Trump’s) not calling for mass deportation. He said, no, only people who have committed crimes and only until all of that has been taken care of do we look at what we do next."

Ryan says Trump victory will unify Republicans, vows to work 'hand in hand'

House Speaker Paul Ryan vowed Wednesday to help lead a “unified Republican government” with Donald Trump as president, promising Americans that the entire party can now work “hand in hand” to solve the country’s problems.
Ryan’s remarks extended an olive branch to Trump, the GOP president-elect with whom he’s had an up-and-down relationship since the start of the 2016 election cycle.
The Wisconsin congressman and leader of the GOP-controlled House said that he’d already spoken twice with Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence, a former House member whom Ryan praised for his like-minded conservative principles.
Ryan’s comments also came before returning to Capitol Hill next week to address challenges like ObamaCare and passing a federal budget to avoid a looming government shutdown. And they came amid a divided House Republican Conference, which had already been at odds over the populist, anti-establishment message that Trump will bring to Washington in January.
“With a unified Republican government, we can fix these problems,” Ryan said Wednesday at a press conference in Wisconsin. “What I see is great potential. What I see is a unified government.”
Ryan and Trump have had an uneasy relationship since the start of Trump’s improbable outsider campaign, which began with him vanquishing 16 major candidates in the GOP presidential primaries.
The relationship was at its worst in early October when Ryan said he would stop campaigning for Trump after the release of a 2005 audiotape in which Trump is heard making lewd comments regarding women.
However, Ryan voted for Trump and on Wednesday said he’d spoken to the president-elect twice since he was declared the winner overnight.
“He turned politics on its head,” Ryan said from Wisconsin. “We will work hand in hand.”
He also thanked Trump for pulling several House and Senate Republicans “over the finish line” this election cycle to give the GOP control of the White House and both chambers.
“Donald Trump provided a lot of coattails,” Ryan also said.
Still, Ryan returns to Capitol Hill amid a Republican caucus divided over him abandoning Trump in the final stretch of a then-close race with Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
Ryan, who in fall 2015 accepted the job of leading the GOP-led House, was already under fire from the chamber’s most conservative wing -- in large part for relying on House Democrats to pass legislation when he couldn’t get the support of rank-and-file Republicans.
During the months-long Capitol Hill recess that ends next week, there have been rumblings about detractors trying to end Ryan’s roughly 14-month-long leadership of the GOP-controlled House.
However, the House Freedom Caucus, part of the chamber’s most conservative faction, has dismissed news reports about an attempt to replace Ryan.
The group is scheduled to meet Nov. 15, upon returning to Capitol Hill.
Virginia GOP Rep. Dave Brat told FoxNews.com on Wednesday that Ryan had indeed identified that Trump had tapped into something the other politicians had missed. However, he urged the speaker to identify exactly what resonated with voters and present that to them.
“We have to put some meat on the bone,” said Brat, who in 2014 ousted House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a Tea Party-backed effort in which pollsters also gave him low odds of winning. “What is that new thing? What animated this election?”
Meanwhile, the conservative group Freedom Works has proposed postponing the House Republicans’ vote this month to re-appoint Ryan.
The group argues that such a vote should be held after seeing whether Ryan holds to conservative principles during Congress’ lame duck session. The full vote would be held in January.
Ryan on Wednesday also argued that Republicans, with Trump in the White House, now have the opportunity to repeal and replace ObamaCare, outgoing President Obama’s 2010 universal health-care law that has become increasingly expensive for many Americans.
“We weren’t able to pass legislation, but with a unified Republican government, we can fix these problems,” he said.
Republicans went into Election Day with a 54-to-46 majority in the Senate, with Democrats needing to gain just five seats to retake control of the chamber.
As of Wednesday, the GOP still had at least a 51-seat majority in the upper chamber.
“We look forward to working with him,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday after Trump’s victory. “We’ll be enthusiastically supportive of almost all of his things. And when we have differences, we talk about them privately.”
Republicans were expected to keep control of the House. They entered Election Day with a 59-seat House advantage, so Democrats would have had to gain 30 seats to take control of the chamber. They were expected to pick up 10 to 20 seats, but gained no more than nine.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., congratulated Trump and urged him to offer a “robust infrastructure jobs bill” that Congress can “quickly pass” and to protect and defend Americans “in a manner that is strong and smart, and that honors the sacrifices of our men and women in uniform.”

Thousands take to streets in major cities to protest Trump election (Losers)

Anti-Trump protests erupt in major US cities.

Thousands of people coast-to-coast took to the streets Wednesday night to protest Donald Trump’s election, disrupting traffic, chanting anti-Trump slogans and some ending up in handcuffs.
From New England to heartland cities like Kansas City and along the West Coast, demonstrators bore flags and effigies of the president-elect, disrupting traffic and declaring that they refused to accept Trump's victory.
Some California cities saw heated tensions over Trump’s election. Thousands of protesters burned a giant papier mache Trump head in Los Angeles and started fires in Oakland intersections.
Los Angeles demonstrators also beat a Trump piñata and sprayed the Los Angeles Times building and news vans with anti-Trump profanity. One protester outside LA City Hall read a sign that simply said "this is very bad."
Late in the evening several hundred people blocked one of the city's busiest freeways, U.S. 101 between downtown and Hollywood.
Los Angeles police told CBS Los Angeles that at least 13 people were arrested in the protests.
In Oakland, several thousand people gathered in Frank Ogawa Palaza, police said, clogging intersections and freeway on-ramps. According to KTVU, police used tear gas to disperse protesters after an unlawful assembly was declared.

Oakland police said one protesters was cited and a small number of protesters were arrested on suspicion of disobedience.

A similar protest in Manhattan drew about 1,000 people. Outside Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in midtown, police installed barricades to keep the demonstrators at bay.
According to NBC New York, at least 60 people were arrested in the Manhattan protests.
“America is not voting for Donald Trump’s policies, which don’t exist,” one protester told the station. “They voted for sexism, racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism.”
Other protesters echoed “Not my president” chants, which had been heard in several cities across the U.S.
In Chicago, several thousand people marched through the Loop. They gathered outside Trump Tower, chanting “Not my president!” One resident Michael Burke said he believes the president-elect stands to divide the nation and stir up a deep-seated hatred. He added there was a constitutional duty not to accept that outcome.
Hundreds of protesters gathered near Philadelphia's City Hall despite chilly, wet weather. Participants — who included both supporters of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who lost to Clinton in the primary — expressed anger at both Republicans and Democrats over the election's outcome.
In Boston, thousands of anti-Trump protesters streamed through downtown, chanting "Trump's a racist" and carrying signs that said "Impeach Trump" and "Abolish Electoral College." Clinton appears to be on pace to win the popular vote, despite losing the electoral count that decides the presidential race.
In the Midwest, protesters gathered in Minneapolis, Omaha, Nebraska and Kansas City Missouri. The Des Moines Register also reported that Iowa’s capital city saw some people protest as well, though it was kept to small numbers.
Marchers protesting Trump's election chanted and carried signs in front of the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Media outlets broadcast video Wednesday night showing a peaceful crowd in front of the new downtown hotel. Many chanted "No racist USA, no Trump, no KKK."
Another group stood outside the White House. They held candles, listened to speeches and sang songs.
Dallas activists gathered by the dozens outside the city's sports arena, the American Airlines Center.
In Oregon, dozens of people blocked traffic in downtown Portland, burned American flags and forced a delay for trains on two light-rail lines. Earlier, the protest in downtown drew several Trump supporters, who taunted the demonstrators with signs. A lone Trump supporter was chased across Pioneer Courthouse Square and hit in the back with a skateboard before others intervened.
Many held anti-Trump and Black Lives Matter signs and chanted slogans, including "Misogyny has to go," and "The people united, will never be defeated."
Five people were shot and injured in an area near the protest, but police said the shootings and the demonstration were unrelated.
Back in New York, several groups of protesters caused massive gridlock as police mobilized to contain them under a light rain.
They held signs that read "Trump Makes America Hate" and chanted "hey, hey, ho, ho Donald Trump has got to go." and "Impeach Trump."

Ugly aftermath: Liberal media types savage Trump, his supporters and the press for upset victory

Things are getting ugly in the liberal precincts of the media.
As the news business tries to grapple with the previously unthinkable—a Trump presidency—some of its left-wing practitioners are venting their rage, both at the country and at the press.
Jamelle Bouie, an African-American and a top political writer for Slate, tweeted: “I didn’t quite understand how much white people hated us, or could at least live with that hate. Now I do.”
That was before Bouie apologized for misunderstanding the election but after he wrote that Trump “all but cried [the N-word].”
 Jeff Jarvis, a liberal media critic, author and blogger who directs a journalism program at the City University of New York, blamed the press, tweeting:
“I fear that journalism is irredeemably broken, a failure. My profession failed to inform the public about the fascist they are electing.”
Jarvis also wrote: “I'll say it: This is the victory of the uneducated and uninformed.” (He blamed others as well, including his race for “inherent racism,” his gender for “sexism” and himself.)
Can anyone seriously suggest that the press didn't go all out in investigating every aspect of Trump's life and career? But if you're convinced he's a fascist, you think journalists somehow fell down on the job.
Now let me say that I understand passions are running high in the wake of a bitter and divisive election. Donald Trump said things during the campaign that many people understandably found offensive. And since Tuesday morning began with the widespread expectation that Hillary Clinton would become the first woman to win the White House, I understand the crushing disappointment for those commentators who were sympathetic to her cause.
But the vitriol is deeply unattractive—and goes to the heart of why the media misjudged Trump, and his supporters, for a year and a half.
The Republican nominee pulled off the incredibly difficult feat of capturing Michigan and Wisconsin because he struck a deep chord, there and elsewhere, with white, paycheck-to-paycheck Americans who are angry and frustrated at a political system that does little for them. And most journalists who work for national news organizations are simply out of touch with those folks.
Imagine how these liberal journalists would have reacted if Clinton, who gave a gracious concession speech yesterday, had won and Trump supporters were still calling her a liar and criminal who should be locked up.
To dump on the people who back Trump as a bunch of dumb, racist yahoos is to say that they’re simply too idiotic and prejudiced to vote in their own self-interest, unlike we the media, who know what's best for them.
Instead we have commentators and media outlets on the left doubling and tripling down. The Huffington Post, which embarrassed itself by long relegating Trump to the entertainment section, started with this headline: “Nightmare: President Trump.” Followed by “Mourning in America.” Although the website now plans to drop the editor’s note on every story declaring Trump to be a racist, sexist xenophobe.
David Remnick, editor of the New Yorker, wrote:
“The election of Donald Trump to the Presidency is nothing less than a tragedy for the American republic, a tragedy for the Constitution, and a triumph for the forces, at home and abroad, of nativism, authoritarianism, misogyny, and racism. Trump’s shocking victory, his ascension to the Presidency, is a sickening event in the history of the United States and liberal democracy.”
Others played up the racial angle. Van Jones, a CNN commentator who once served in the Obama White House, called Trump’s win “a white-lash against a black president.” President Obama, though, was not on the ballot.
Still others played the sexism card. Salon called Hillary’s loss “The Misogyny Apocalypse…It was unimaginable that America would self-destruct rather than elect a female president.”
Keep in mind that many conservative commentators were also in the #NeverTrump camp. But National Review congratulated him in an editorial, while hoping he can win the trust of the part of the country that views him as unfit. The Weekly Standard, whose editor Bill Kristol was an implacable foe, ran a piece by Fred Barnes titled “Trump Didn’t Split the GOP—He Strengthened It.”
Back in 1968, the Washington Post cartoonist Herblock made a decision when Richard Nixon, whom he had always portrayed as a sinister-looking guy with a 5 o’clock shadow, won the election. He declared that he gave every new president a clean shave, and Nixon’s stubble vanished.
As the country prepares for the next four years, Trump’s liberal critics—while obviously entitled to battle the 45^th president--might show a similar graciousness.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz.

To all of the actors that said they would leave America if Trump won the election. BYE BYE!

Good Riddance!… These 23 Hollywood Idiots Said They’d Leave If Trump Wins – Let’s Hold Them To It

These Hollywood idiots said they would leave the country if Donald Trump wins the election.
Let’s hold them to it.

1. Jon Stewart
Who? Political satirist.
Where would he move? Another planet.
“I would consider getting in a rocket and going to another planet, because clearly this planet’s gone bonkers,” he told reporters.
2. Chelsea Handler
Who? Comedian.
Where would she move? Spain.“I did buy a house in another country just in case, so all of these people that threaten to leave the country and then don’t, I will leave the country,” she said on Live with Kelly and Michael(Weirdly, she called Trump charming in the same interview.)
3. Neve Campbell
Who? House of Cards actress.
Where would she move? Canada.
“His honesty is terrifying,” she told Huffington Post UK.
4. Barry Diller
Who? Founder of IAC Interactive.
Where would he move? Unspecified.
“If Donald Trump doesn’t fall, I’ll either move out of the country or join the resistance,” he told Bloomberg.
5. Lena Dunham
Who? Creator of Girls.
Where would she move? Vancouver.
“I know a lot of people have been threatening to do this, but I really will,” she said at the Matrix Awards.
6. Keegan-Michael Key
Who? Star of Key & Peele.
Where would he move? Canada.
“It’s easy. It’s like 10 minutes from Detroit and that’s where I’m from,” he told TMZ.
7. Chloë Sevigny
Who? Actress and guest star in Portlandia.
Where would she move? Nova Scotia.
She answered simply, “Nova Scotia” to a question of where she would move if Trump were elected.
8. Al Sharpton
Who? Activist.
Where would he move? Out of here.
“If Donald Trump is the nominee, I’m open to support anyone, while I’m also reserving my ticket out of here if he wins,” he said at a press conference.
9. Natasha Lyonne
Who? Actress in Orange Is the New Black.
Where would she move? A mental hospital.
“[I’ll move] to a mental hospital for a while because you’re like ‘why is this happening?'” she said.
10. Eddie Griffin
Who? Comedian.
Where would he move? Africa.
“He’s good at making money, but he’s ignorant…If Trump wins, I’m moving to Africa,” he told DJ Vlad.
11. Spike Lee
Who? Director of Malcolm X.
Where would he move? …Brooklyn.
If Trump wins, he’ll be “moving back to the republic of Brooklyn, New York,” he reported to Vanity Fair.
12. Amber Rose
Who? Model.
Where would she move? Unspecified.
“I can’t even think about it! I’m moving, I’m out! I can’t. And I am taking my son with me!” she told US Weekly.
13. Samuel L. Jackson
Who? Actor.
Where would he move? South Africa.
“He’s just running for popularity. C’mon, just let it go,” he said on The View.
14. Cher
Who? Singer.
Where would she move? Jupiter
“IF HE WERE TO BE ELECTED, IM MOVING TO JUPITER >:|” she tweeted.
15. George Lopez
Who? Comedian and star of George Lopez.
Where would he move? Mexico.
“If he wins, he won’t have to worry about immigration, we’ll all go back,” he told TMZ.
16. Barbra Streisand
Who? Singer.
Where would she move? Australia or Canada.
“He has no facts. I don’t know, I can’t believe it. I’m either coming to your country [Australia], if you’ll let me in, or Canada,” she told Australian journalist Michael Usher.
17. Raven-Symoné
Who? Actress and host of The View.
Where would she move? Canada.
“My confession for this election is if any Republican gets nominated, I’m going to move to Canada with my entire family. I already have my ticket,” she said on The View.
Note: Her leaving was contingent on any Republican candidate winning the election–not just Trump.
18. Whoopi Goldberg
Who? Actress and host of The View.
Where would she move? Unspecified.
“I don’t want it to be America. Maybe it’s time for me to move, you know,” she said.
19. Omari Hardwick
Who? Actor in Power.
Where would he move? Italy.
“I’ll move from Denver to Italy… If Donald Trump wins the presidency, I’m out,” he told The Wrap.
20. Miley Cyrus
Who? Pop star.
Where would she move? Unspecified.
“My heart is broken into a 100000 pieces…I am moving if this is my president! I don’t say things I don’t mean!” she wrote in an Instagram post.
21. Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Who? Supreme Court Justice.
Where would she move? New Zealand.
“I can’t imagine what the country would be with Donald Trump as our president… Now it’s time for us to move to New Zealand,” she told The New York Times.
22. Amy Schumer
Who? Comedian and actress.
Where would she move? Spain.
“I will need to learn to speak Spanish because I will move to Spain or somewhere… It’s beyond my comprehension if Trump won. It’s too crazy,” she told BBC Newsnight.
23. Katie Hopkins
Who? British columnist.
Where would she move? America!

Republicans projected to keep control of Senate, House

Republicans were projected to retain control of the House and Senate after fending off Democratic challenges across the country on Election Day.
Democrats, despite having been optimistic about this year’s chances of retaking the majority in the upper chamber, failed to gain the five seats needed. The Democrats’ candidate beat GOP incumbent Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk, as expected, but the party lost most other tight races.
As of early Wednesday morning, Republicans were on track to see their 54-46 majority erode only slightly. They could end up with at least 52 seats, according to the AP.
Republican as expected also kept control of the House. The GOP entered Election Day with a 59-seat House advantage, so Democrats would have had to gain 30 seats to take control of the chamber. They will instead likely pick up 10 to 20 seats, falling short of majority control.
“House Republicans won tonight thanks to our members’ relentless focus on the issues important to voters in their districts," said Oregon Rep. Greg Walden, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
In the bid to control the Senate, Fox News projected the outcomes of several key races including victories for Republican Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, Rob Portman of Ohio, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, all fending off tough challenges to win reelection.
Portman, Burr, Johnson and Toomey were among a handful of incumbent Republicans whom Democrats had targeted early for defeat -- in their bid to win the Senate majority.
"Both parties have to work together to find common ground," Portman said in his victory speech. "The best way to do that is to get things done. I’ll do everything in my powers to expand opportunity for everybody.”
The race in Louisiana for the seat of retiring GOP Sen. David Vitter will as expected go to a run-off.
Democrat Foster Campbell and Republican John Kennedy emerged as the top vote-getters in a field of nearly two-dozen candidates. But neither could win more than 50 percent of the vote to win the seat.
The only major race that remained too close to call into Wednesday morning was the Senate contest in New Hampshire between GOP incumbent Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Democratic challenger Gov. Maggie Hassan.
Ayotte is trying to appeal to the state’s notoriously independent electorate while staying loyal to her Washington Republican base and supporters like the National Rifle Association and the billionaire, libertarian-minded Koch Brothers.
Ayotte said early that she’d support Trump but did not endorse him. She then called Trump a “role model,” only to retract the statement after another offensive Trump comment, then totally withdrew her support.
In North Carolina, Burr defeated Democratic challenger Deborah Ross, to serve a third Senate term. And Johnson beat former Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold in a rematch of their 2010 race.
In Pennsylvania, Toomey defeated Katie McGinty, a former Clinton administration adviser who was handpicked by Washington Democrats.
Rubio keeps a Senate seat for Republicans that Democrats had hoped to win after he essentially abandoned the seat for his ultimately-failed presidential bid.
However, Rubio re-entered the race in June and held off a tough challenge from Democratic Rep. Tim Murphy to win a second term.
Republicans also held onto the Senate seat of retiring Indiana GOP senator Dan Coats.
Rep. Todd Young kept the seat by fending off a strong, surprise challenge from former Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh, who muscled into the race in mid-July.
But in Illinois, incumbent GOP Sen. Mark Kirk was defeated by Democratic challenger Rep. Tammy Duckworth.
Kirk was considered the most vulnerable Republican senator in the 2016 election cycle. Duckworth is a veteran who lost both of her legs in the Iraq War.
Kirk, a first-term senator who served in Congress for nearly 15 years, was seeking reelection in Democrat-leaning Illinois. He dimmed his comeback chances last month by insulting Duckworth’s Thai ancestry.
“I'm here because of the miracles that occurred 12 years ago ...  … in a dusty field in Iraq,” Duckworth told supporters afterward. “Some I can explain, like the bravery of my crew. And some I cannot, like the shrapnel from the explosion passing through my helicopter spinning rotor blades and not destroy it, allowing us to land. … I live every day trying to honor you.”
Democrats liked their chances of retaking the Senate practically within days of losing the majority in 2014 -- considering they had to defend just 10 incumbents, compared to Republicans who would have to spend far more money and other resources to protect 24 sitting senators.
Republicans had a very short 2016 wish list -- take the seat of arch-political rival Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, the retiring top Senate Democrat.
Republicans had a top-tier competitor in Rep. Joe Heck.
But all of the resources they put into the race couldn't defeat Democratic nominee Catherine Cortez Masto or change the fact that Nevada is a liberal-leaning state anchored by the Las Vegas area, home to a large Hispanic population, which overwhelmingly supports Democratic candidates.
In Ohio, GOP Gov. John Kasich’s refusal to support Donald Trump made Portman’s task of winning a second term even tougher.
But the state’s older, solidly-white population and a lackluster performance by Democrat challenger and former Gov. Ted Strickland gave Portman the win, after having built a nearly 20-point lead before polls opened Tuesday.
Republicans pulled out a win in Missouri, but it took incumbent GOP Sen. Roy Blunt the political fight of his life. He defeated Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander, an upstart Democrat with military experience who can assemble an AR-15 blindfolded.
In Indiana, Republicans had a solid candidate in Young, a three-term House member.
But Bayh’s surprise decision to enter the race -- with a $10 million war chest -- made it much more competitive and expensive.
The race remains surprisingly close until the end, amid disclosures about Bayh’s profitable connections to K Street and Wall Street.
"When I grew up here in Indiana, my dad told me almost every day, 'If I worked really hard, good things would happen.' Well dad, this is a good thing," Young, a former Marine, said after the race. "Tonight was a great victory, not for me, but for the state of Indiana."
Republicans didn’t expect such a hyper-competitive race in North Carolina. But Ross, a former American Civil Liberties Union lawyer and state representative, had little state-wide name recognition.
Toomey's challeger in Pennsylvania was Katie McGinty, among the handful of 2016 Democratic candidates whom political analysts said ran an uninspiring race. The Pennsylvania race was essentially deadlocked since the start of the election cycle.