Quite a striking Republican victory tonight. Republicans entered the Senate races ahead in eight Democratic-held seats and within 1 point in two others. At this writing, with Alaska still out, they have won eight of those nine plus one of the two others, North Carolina. They lost, it appears, by 1 point in New Hampshire and — amazingly and a great tribute to Republican candidate Ed Gillespie — in Virginia.

On governorships, it was thought Republicans would lose seats on balance. They didn’t. They did lose in Pennsylvania, as expected, but prevailed in close races in Florida, Kansas and Wisconsin, won solidly in Michigan and have (apparently, at this writing) won in Massachusetts and Maryland — two states where Barack Obama won more than 60 percent of the votes in 2008 and 2012 — and Maine, where almost everyone expected Paul LePage to lose.