Blue wave nearly swallowed some of America's reddest states as election data exposes GOP's close calls

By Fox News · Fox News

Races in traditionally staunch Republican strongholds came incredibly close to flipping amid Tuesday night's landslide Democratic victory, even in states where GOP candidates enjoyed overwhelming financial advantages. Signs of something going horribly wrong for the GOP appeared late in the election cycle when Fox News rated the Senate races in South Carolina and Kansas, two states with decades-long loyalty streaks for the Republican Party, as competitive. As results poured in on election night, however, it became clear that even states that practically nobody thought would be competitive, such as Louisiana and Tennessee, were coming within a razor's edge of going blue. Mississippi, seen by most political forecasters as among the safest of GOP seats, remains undecided as of publication, with just dozens of votes separating incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and her Democratic challenger, Scott Colom. AMERICA SAW THE BLUE WAVE COMING — BUT DRASTICALLY UNDERESTIMATED THE EXTENT OF THE DEM TSUNAMI In Tennessee, for instance, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jerri Green spent just over $2 million, dwarfed by the nearly $13 million Sen. Marsha Blackburn , the GOP nominee, poured into the race. Outside groups burned through millions more to boost Blackburn’s candidacy. The result of outspending a Democrat by nearly 6-to-1 in one of the reddest states in the country was Blackburn defeating Green by less than three points in a state that favored Republicans by almost 30 points in 2024. Louisiana’s Senate race told a similar story. The Republican nominee, Rep. Julia Letlow, and her allies paid out approximately $9.4 million to win the seat, compared to the roughly $3.89 million Democrats spent on the race. Letlow ultimately won by just under two points in a state President Donald Trump carried by roughly 22 points in 2024, underscoring the dramatic erosion of the GOP's advantage in one of its longtime strongholds. FROM TEXAS TO KANSAS, 6 STUNNING MIDTERM RESULTS THAT…