Are you surprised that CO-SEN ended up way closer than IA-SEN?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

It is an apples to oranges comparison because one was open and the other was not. Also, it was not picked up on just how Republican Indies were going to vote and knowing that result would have made IA more likely but IA indies are more elastic I suspect then Colorado's where more of them are "too leftwing for the Democrats" Indies in Boulder.

CO and IA used to always vote together. 32 (FDR), 36 (FDR) 40 (Wilkie) 44 (Dewey) 48 (Truman), 52 (Ike) 56 (Ike) 60 (Nixon), 64 (LBJ) 68 (Nixon) 72 (Nixon), 76 (Ford), 80 (Reagan) 84 (Reagan). Only 1988 does IA diverge and start vote for Dukakis because of the previously mentioned farming crisis.

It is always one of the most undiverse states in the union, whereas CO has a strong minority voting bloc. The Republicans therefore between the more friendly indies and fewer minorities have a higher ceiling then Republicans in Colorado.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

All three of those are the result of Republicans running crappy candidates and/or taking it for granted.

Also whilst rural in comparison to NY, NE-02 is dominated by Douglas county and Omaha.

Also must be noted that Rounds did overperform the polls, Sasse didn't have any problems (won NE-02 by 20% or close to it) and of course Ernst. Fischer did well despite not being a solid choice campaign wise and so forth. You can select a few races to prove a point, but weakness on the part of three candidates does not compare to the generalized weakness that the Republicans experienced from 1986 to 1996 (lost ND Class III, SD Class II and III, NE class I, and various house seats over that period and didn't start to regain most of it until almost two decades later (with the exeption of SD-AL in 1996 and SD class III in 2004 both because of Thune I would point out).