What was the biggest surprise in your state?

[Potus]

I was surprised, in a good way, that the State Senate flipped to Republican control. The House was reasonable, but the Senate caught me off guard.

[dmmidmi]

Honestly? Nothing.

Snyder won by low single-digits, Peters won by a margin in the teens, Schuette and Johnson were both re-elected, none of Michigan's US House seats flipped, the GOP made marginal gains in the State House and Senate, and neither of the ballot proposals passed.

If I had to come up with something, I'd say it's that Gary Peters didn't win more counties in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Debbie Stabenow racked up healthy margins in Iron, Delta, Ontonagon, Menominee, and Schoolcraft counties (all counties Gary Peters lost), despite only outperforming Gary Peters by 4%.

[Brittain33]

That Coakley finished as close to Baker as she did, and similarly that neither competitive House race (MA-6 and MA-9) finished within 10 points for the Dem.

[Miles]

Hagan losing

[Bigby]

John Barrow lost. I'm pleased with the results, but I felt a little cynical about Allen's chances during August, September, and October. I guess Barrow didn't exaggerate his accent enough.

[PAK Man]

I think the biggest surprise was that there was no net change in the Iowa Senate. Democrats went into the night with a 26-24 lead and they ended the night with a 26-24 lead; one Democrat lost reelection and one Republican lost reelection.

The Secretary of State election between Paul Pate (ex-SoS) and Brad Anderson (former guv aide) was a lot closer than I imagined, too. Pate won with less than 50% of the vote, despite being a two-term SoS in the late-90s.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Neither MN-7 nor MN-8 flipped, and Dayton only won by 5.5%

[Liberalrocks]

Nothing really,

Its California a democratic sweep was expected and it happened.

I guess the fact that no *statewide* republican could come within a couple of points of victory even here in California where despite massive low voter turnout could be a bit of a surprise and futures the point that the GOP is so so dead here.

[Senate Minority Leader Lord Voldemort]

Nothing really,

Its California a democratic sweep was expected and it happened.

I guess the fact that no republican could come within a couple of points of victory even here in California where despite massive low voter turnout could be a bit of a surprise and futures the point that the GOP is so so dead here.

A couple of the vulnerable assembly seats flipping wasn't surprising, just disappointing.

I'm surprised that Vidak and Cannella in those super super Democratic senate districts held on so handily.

[Liberalrocks]

Nothing really,

Its California a democratic sweep was expected and it happened.

I guess the fact that no republican could come within a couple of points of victory even here in California where despite massive low voter turnout could be a bit of a surprise and futures the point that the GOP is so so dead here.

A couple of the vulnerable assembly seats flipping wasn't surprising, just disappointing.

I'm surprised that Vidak and Cannella in those super super Democratic senate districts held on so handily.

Sorry I revised my post to mean statewide offices as that was vague. Yes GOP did pick up some assembly seats in certain districts but really considering the record low turnout they could have been expected to do better. That really spells doom for them here in the immediate election cycles to come. They also  did horrible in 2010 despite the national GOP wave that year too.

[Senate Minority Leader Lord Voldemort]

Nothing really,

Its California a democratic sweep was expected and it happened.

I guess the fact that no republican could come within a couple of points of victory even here in California where despite massive low voter turnout could be a bit of a surprise and futures the point that the GOP is so so dead here.

A couple of the vulnerable assembly seats flipping wasn't surprising, just disappointing.

I'm surprised that Vidak and Cannella in those super super Democratic senate districts held on so handily.

Sorry I revised my post to mean statewide offices as that was vague. Yes GOP did pick up some assembly seats in certain districts but really considering the record low turnout they could have been expected to do better. That really spells doom for them here in the immediate election cycles to come. They also  did horrible in 2010 despite the national GOP wave that year too.

The problem is that they literally have no bench to recruit viable statewide candidates, and the ones they could run (Issa, Walters, random state legislator) are smart enough to not leave their districts and blow their careers.

And it's so expensive to run a statewide campaign, they tried self funders (Fiorina and Whitman) to no avail. Californians have proved they hate rich self-funders, so there goes that option. There's not much you can do.

[Frodo]

The fact that Mark Warner barely won re-election.  Besides the obvious, nothing really. 

[ill ind]

  Despite Bruce Rauner pickung up the Governor's chair handily, the Illinois GOP could not pick up a single seat in the Assembly preserving the Democrats' veto-proof majority there.

Ill_Ind

[Dixie Reborn]

Arkansas - Pryor getting Blanche'd
Alabama - Bentley winning Jefferson County

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

NY-25 being as close as it is.

[Reaganfan]

The fact that the Ohio Democratic Party is almost non-existent. We have almost every office. Even the Ohio Supreme Court is 6-1 Republican.

[Mr. Smith]

CA: Jerry Brown not taking up 65% of the vote and not taking up more of the inland or Central Valley counties, totally expected  a complete blowout.

Instead Kashkari actually managed 40%

VA: Warner only narrowly holding on to his seat.

[Mr. Illini]

Schneider lost in the 10th

[Maxwell]

Nothing super surprising, Fallin's margin was a bit bigger than I could've guessed (56-41), but not really outside of the realm of expectation.

I guess the surprise then is that Dorman won NONE of the counties that Lt. Gov. Askins won when she ran for Governor 4 years ago, and yet he won a bunch of super rural counties across the state. Goes to show what a difference in campaign messaging does (Askins ran as a moderate, Dorman ran hard to the right on guns, to the center on education, and heavily against Fallin/Barresi).

[publicunofficial]

The Republican wave not hitting Washington at all. R's took the Senate, but that was always likely to happen.

[Flake]

Graham winning was very unexpected to most here.

[IceSpear]

Probably the Republicans gaining seats in the state Senate. It wasn't a complete surprise, but was the closest thing to one.

[ElectionsGuy]

Scott Walker winning by literally the exact same margin as in 2010.

[tmthforu94]

Aside from Brownback winning, the fact that Republicans picked up seats in the House. A couple recounts are still going, but Republicans could have as much as a 98-27 majority (currently 92-33).

[Bandit3 the Worker]

A Tea Party guy who filed a frivolous lawsuit against the public library and says you should be required to own property in order to vote winning a Campbell County Commissioner seat by 60% to 40%.