Democrats take control of Congress

12 April 2012

The Democrats have taken control of both houses of Congress for the first time in 12 years, it has been officially confirmed.

Their victory in the Senate was secured when Republican incumbent George Allen conceded defeat in Virginia, two days after America went to the polls.

Democrat Jim Webb won by a tiny 7,200 votes out of almost 2.4 million after a bitterly-fought campaign, giving his party a 51-49 majority in the chamber.

Mr Allen, who just weeks ago had look set to be re-elected easily, said: "The people of Virginia have spoken and I respect their decision."

The party had already exceeded expectations to sweep to power in the 435-seat House of Representatives, making almost double the 15 gains they needed.

But the balance of power in the Senate had been on a knife-edge with Democrats having made five of the six gains they needed and votes being painstakingly counted in Virginia, the last undecided state. Mr Webb had already declared victory but initially there was widespread speculation that Mr Allen would demand a recount, delaying the process by weeks.

But he said he had decided against it because of the cost to the taxpayer and the animosity it would cause.

Democrats have not held both the House of Representative and Senate since 1994, when their opponents scored landslide wins in the so-called Republican Revolution.

The scale of this week's turnaround took many by surprise, including, by his own admission, President George Bush.

Although pundits had predicted Democrats would regain the House they had generally not envisaged such a convincing triumph, and were even more cautious about the possibility of a Senate win.

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