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Early projection shows Republicans pick up in Senate

03 November 2010 01:20 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Early voting results show that the Republicans so far have picked up one Senate seat, and the conservative Tea Party movement can claim an early victory in US elections Tuesday, APA reports quoting Earth Times.

CNN projections, based on early voting tallies, showed that Republican Dan Coats, a former US ambassador to Germany, would be the next senator from Indiana. Coats would take the seat held by retiring Democrat Evan Bayh.

CNN also projected that Rand Paul, a Republican and key face of the conservative Tea Party movement, has defeated his Democratic opponent for a Senate seat representing Kentucky. He would replace retiring Republican Jim Bunning.

Pre-election polls show the Republicans are likely to mount a strong challenge to Democratic control of the Senate with 37 seats up for grabs, and are likely to regain control of the House of Representatives for the first time in four years.

Coats has previously served as a senator from Indiana 1989 to 1999 and did not then seek re-election. A conservative, he was tapped by former president George W Bush to be ambassador to Germany, a post he held from 2001 to 2005.