a shift in the balance of power, republicans taking control of the senate for the first time in nearly a decade. we're live with reaction from coast to coast and around the world. >> the g.o.p. victory, likely to make mitch mcconnell with his agenda for the republican-controlled congress. and how the outcome with change the agenda for the commander in chief. >> the political landscape looks a whole lot different this

morning than it did just 24 hours ago. republicans are riding high and making plans to push their agenda in washington and beyond. >> the g.o.p. picked up enough seats to seize control of the senate. and now they will be setting course for the final two years of the white house. harry reid is out, and mit mitch -- mitch mcconnell set to replace him. we have team coverage from around the world and around the country. >> let's begin with lisa stark in washington. good morning. what has been the reaction from what must be overjoyed republicans this morning? >> they are overjoyed. i think they probably even did better than they had hoped for. the democrats are waking up with a big headache, looking at a new political landscape.

president obama will hold ta us in conference this afternoon, and we'll get his comments on the election, but it seems clear that voters discontent with the president and the do-nothing congress played out at the ballot box. the ambulance of power in washington has shifted. it now favors republicans who will control both the house and the senate. >> tonight they said we can have real change in washington, real change. [ cheers and applause ] >> reporter: leading the republican route tuesday expected new senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. he easily beat democrat allison grimes who stumbled late in the campaign. republicans cruised to victories in west virginia, south dakota, and montana, but it was iowa an republican coming from behind to

overtake bruce braley. >> my tame is tom tillis, and i'm the next united states senator -- [ cheers and applause ] >> swept past kay hagan. >> i think senator reid is going to have a different office assignment come january. >> reporter: colorado's incumbent senator losing to corey gardner. and in arkansas -- >> how about that win. >> reporter: tom cotton denied mark pryor a third term in the senate. >> i think it was a win we all hoped for and maybe expected, but perhaps a little earlier and bigger than any of us would have expected. >> reporter: but democrats were able to stop the bleeding in several states. jeanne shaheen put away scott brown. and in virginia mark warner is locked in a dead heat with ed

gaestby. in louisiana no candidate received over 50% of the vote, triggering a runoff next month. three-term senator mary la land -- land drew will phase bill cassidy again. >> bill cassidy, you cannot run. you cannot hide anymore. this race is starting tonight. [ cheers and applause ] >> so that race off and running. president obama has reached out by phone to a number of winners, but he has not been able to reach mitch mcconnell. he apparently left a message, and the white house says he will try again. on friday the president has invited the current leadersover the house and senate to the white house to talk about moving forward. >> they have won but the pressure now shifts to the republican party. what should we expect from them over the next two years?

>> well, certainly they have been emboldened, as they should be. they want to pass the keystone pipeline, for example, and they also want to try to pick apart obamacare. on the other hand we're going to have to see how much progress they can make. we have the presidential election looming in two years, and also there is that continuing tension in the republican party between the tea party faction and the more moderate republicans, so all of that could make it very difficult for the republicans even to push forth that agenda. >> and they don't have the supermajority we have been talking about. >> they do not. >> libby casey is joining us live from louville, kentucky where mitch mcconnell sh still celebrating his victory from last night. they are still waiting for mitch mcconnell to pick up the phone, the white house is calling. but it wasn't that long ago that

some were asking whether mitch mcconnell would even make it to the primary. >> that's right. he faced a right-wing challenge from a tea party conservative. but he was able to instantly get on the air with ads, and then he made it all about president obama. we're getting a glimpse of time magazines new cover, and you'll see here it's a riff of the 2008 iconic poster, hope, a picture of president obama, a graphic print that really imbollized president obama's quest for the presidency. now a riff on it was done four years ago, when speaker boehner became the top republican in the house, but this is arguably an even bigger victory for republicans. and it is a repudiation of the agenda. >> it was about a government that people no longer trust to carry out its most basic duties

to keep them safe, so protect the border, provide dignified and quality care for our veterans. a government that can't be trusted to do the basic things, because it's too busy focusing on things it shouldn't be focusing on at all. >> formally, mitch mcconnell has to be approved by his fellow republicans in the senate to be made majority heard, but that is seen as a forgone conclusion, and we will hear more from him this afternoon, del. >> and what about his opponent. she was running against a man -- if you think about it, the only group that had an approval rating lower than the white house was congress, so how did she come up short in kentucky? >> and not only does congress have a low approval rating, senator mcconnell doesn't have a high approval rating here in his home state. but voters here didn't buy that she would not be linked to president obama, who just does

not have a lot of popularity here to put it mildly. so she wasn't able to seal that deal. they liked her youth and energy, but they wanted to send mitch mcconnell back to the white house to be a thorn in president obama's side. del?

[ technical difficulties ] >> of course that is not what happened in the election yesterday. bill catdy tied landdrew to obama, and it appears he is likely to keep doing that. >> randall this has already been louisiana's most expensive race, costing $40 million. will it cost even more now with mud slinging we expect to happen in the next few weeks leading up to the runoff.

>> stephanie before i answer that question, let me say, we were waiting for a sound bite from congressman cassidy, in which he said he was going to represent louisiana and not someone who was going to represent president obama. that is going to continue to be his theme likely. he spent and his supporters spent millions of dollars running that very ad over and over across the state. it worked. and probably more money will be spent repeating the same thing. >> you have to feel bad for louisiana. randall pinkston for us in new orleans. thank you. >> let's go to usher, republican joni earnst, the new state senator there. a few days ago poll showed her tied with bill braley. >> earnst was very skillful in fending off criticism, the attempt by her democratic opponent to paint her as an

extremist, despite her extreme conservative views. those things did not stick. for example, tom harken, democratic center also said she may bed a good looking as taylor swift, and as nice as mr. rogers, but if she has views like michele bachmann that doesn't work. that didn't stick either. she was a combat veteran, and there was that ad that went viral where she said she grew up on a farm and castrated hogs avenue how to cut the pork in washington. so the ability of her to relate to these people here in iowa was maybe what put her on top. >> iowa is considered to be a bell weather state, what does it

mean for 2016? >> well, democrats admit that iowa was critical, and it has been a litmus test as you say for what may happen in 2016. we have seen a slew of candidates come through iowa. and now we see joni earnst will be the power broker when it comes to the iowa caucus us. so iowa, very, very important when it comes to 2016, del. >> thank you very much. we are joined by a prof profez -- professor of campaign management at nyu. good to see you. >> good to see you. >> what kind of gridlock are we expecting to come in the next two years. >> yeah, we have had several years of a do-nothing ko kong -- congress and we could see more of that. but i think there will be bright

spots. we may see key issues where it's in both party's benefit to move forward. but on say gun control and other issues like that, we're probably going to see more of the same, and you are going to see president obama having to exercise his veto power a lot more than he has for the next six years. >> do you really expect things to change? because it wasn't that long ago that they were saying they needed to retool, rebrand themselves. the republican brand was dead. now we're talking about the democrats, we're talking about president obama, who was harolded in hope and change a decade ago. so what is really going to change? >> i think in certain issues we're going to see change. even rand pall was out the other day saying the republican brand is dead. you have a national picture and a localized picture.

at the national level democrats are okay, and it's republicans that have to work on their brand. but republicans have really become the party of congress, and the democrats have become the party of the white house, and i think this victory bodes better for democratic candidates in 2016, than would a democratic hold on. >> do you think voters voted on the national issues more than on local issues. for example, kay hangen who ran on education in north carolina, that didn't seem to make an impact for voters? >> i do think the drag of president obama, his low approval ratings in this very red map, it did have an impact. that said, i also think what we see happening in some of these states is you see voters going out to the polls and judging candidates on the face of it, and republicans had a better primary season. they had some good candidates out there.

democrats had some candidates who couldn't match the republicans, and that's a switch from 2012, so i think the races themselves also mattered in terms of the candidates. >> thanks for being with us. and jeanie is not going anywhere. she will be back shortly. >> the battle in the bayou that is expected to go on for another month. >> and the incumbent headed for a runoff. what happens next? we'll talk to a reporter. plus the results of the elections could impact the president's mideast policy, and the battle with isil in syria and iraq. we have reaction from london and istanbul.

coming in live with a look at the nation's capitol. there are going to be a lot of changes in congress, and i'm not talking about the renovation of the capitol dome. good morning l, everyone, i'm

>> and i'm del walters. welcome back to the special edition of al jazeera america. >> mary landrieu is heading for a runoff to try to keep her seat. >> we are joined from new orleans this morning. cole good morning, the senate race now there headed to a runoff. did anyone expect it to be this close? >> good morning, thank you for having me. you know, i -- i think people thought land rieu was going to perform a little better in the primary. there was an outside hope that she would be able to get to 50%. i think she might have underperformed a little

yesterday. >> if she underperformed and is now run thering a runoff -- actually she was running against two republicans in the election last night. is it all by over for mary landrieu in the senate and louisiana? >> that's what the polls say, but i think there are some factors that keep her alive. the first her opponent, bill castdy has run his entire campaign on -- against president obama, and against harry reid, and i think he has lost that argument since the senate is now in the republican control. so this is going to be about local issues, and this is where the senator really shines. she has a long record of delivering for the state in terms of oil and gas revenue, in terms of hurricane relief, and we'll see if that message carries through. i don't think what congressman cassidy is going to talk about for the next month, honestly.

>> senator landrieu has been called one of the most conservative democrats in congress. did that help or hurt her campaign? >> she -- she might be a conservative democrat, but in louisiana to be a democrat is to be a liberal. so i don't know if -- if her argument that she's not a liberal really came through to a lot of people that just see that d at the end of somebody's name and assume they are in league with the far left part of the party. and that is certainly an argument that representative cassidy made that -- she votes with obama 97% of the time. that came up over and over and over, and so to a lot of people she is not a conservative in any sense of the world. >> paul avery, perhaps putting it best, to be a democrat is to be a liberal in new orleans.

thanks for being with us, cole. >> al jazeera's nick schifrin is in istanbul turkey. nick, good morning. does the g.o.p. win change how the u.s. is perceived in the middle east? >> yeah, good morning, stephanie. ultimately people here and the leaders here know that foreign policy is dictated by president obama, but of course analysts do say that leaders will look at yesterday's election and think that obama -- his strength has been diminished and therefore some, like benjamin netenyahu might just wait for obama to go, waiting for his successor. but ultimately the policy is going to be dictated by the president of the united states and a lot of people are expecting policies to continue here in turkey as well as iraq and syria. >> how to deal with isil became

a campaign issue in some races. turkey has been vocal about how the u.s. is handling that fight. will that change now? >> no, the criticism is not only from turkey, it's from the moderate opposition, the very u.s. allies. they are complaining the training isn't fast enough, and the air strikes are hitting the wrong targets, and now u.s. officials are considering expanding those strikeses specifically against al-nusra, that is an al-qaeda-linked group. but so far there's no indication yet that the white house itself is actually indicating -- that it is willing to expand those air strikes. >> al jazeera's nick schifrin in istanbul. nick, thank you. our global coverage

continues with dana lewis in london. are e.u. officials worried that the president fight have lost some clout this morning? this >> i think he has lost some clout. certainly his star is fading, but it's a double-edged sword in the sense that perhaps he has lost some influence abroad, but they may see that president obama looks at his domestic agenda, and doesn't see much promise, because he didn't do much legislatively. so he may look at foreign affairs, and that is where he will really leave his legacy. and there was brood understanding here that in the end it is the commander in chief, the president who sets foreign policy, nothing has changed. and if it's somebody like president putin of russia who seems to dwell on power, and doesn't understand compromise on these issues, he may try to test president obama in the coming days. perhaps in eastern ukraine.

many people say when you really look at the differences between the republicans and democrats on america's policy towards ukraine and it's territorial integrity that really nothing has changed overnight. and that would be a miscalculation by somebody like president putin. >> and there is a certain that they could pass the sanctions into law. why is that an issue? >> in the 1970s, there were laws passed against the soviet union because of the jewish immigrant situation, and then they passed a bill which sat there for 20 years, there was no way to repeal it, and the very nature of sanctions against russia is you hold a carrot, in saying if you back away from ukraine, we will repeal those sanctions, but if the republicans get tough and

enact that into legislation, that could be on the books for a lot of years and that is a big certain. >> a lot of issues we're talking about again. a sweep for republicans, expanding their control in the house and taking over the senate. >> we'll be talking about which votes are still up for grabs. jeanie and michael shure will be joining us when we come back.

welcome back. we're joined now by political contributors now. good to see both of you this morning. a short time ago, press secretary told us what she thought voters were looking for when they cast their ballot last night. let's listen. >> they were voting against the do-nothing ways of washington, and washington gridlock, and i think that everyone, republican and democrat needs to take that to heart, and there are a lot of things that we can work with this president on. a lot of things that had passed the house on a bipartisan basis

that can now go into the senate, have a conversation, and go to the president's desk. >> so michael is this going to be a new do-something congress? >> did america reward a do-nothing congress, hard to say? >> but doesn't it prove if you are an obstructionist you kind of win in the long haul. >> this is the short haul, though. because they are now in charge. so they cannot afford to do nothing. and mitch mcconnell's biggest battles are not going to come with the president, they are going to come within his own party. a divided caucus in that senate is going to make it even easier for them to do nothing even when they are in the majority. >> jeanie you said that you actually see a potential benefit for the democrats in 2016 because of the massive

republican win. can you explain that further? this >> yeah, i think it would have been harder for a democratic candidate in the presidential election to run if the democrats maintained the senate. they have a much stronger argument to say you don't want the republicans to control this entire government. because americans have been dividing government, unfortunately, i think for a long time, and michael is absolutely right. if republicans as they become larger, it will be harder for the leaders to control the caucus, if they don't make real strides in this some areas, voters are not going to feel comfortable handing over the white house for them. >> bill and hillary clinton were everywhere for the democrats. arkansas went down. what does this say about the future of the clintons? >> bill clinton is still the single-best surrogate for the

entire country. i think that you cannot judge the power of the clintons by how arkansas went, how these southern states went. >> thank you for being us. >> much more coverage of america votes 2014 throughout the day here on al jazeera america. we'll break down what is next at 11 am eastern. and bring you live coverage of the president's news conference this afternoon. that's it for us here in new york, i'm stephanie sy. >> and i'm del walters. "inside story" is next. and this morning, don't worry, you don't have to go vote, you can go back to sleep if you want to. but stay tuned. >> the polls will close in just a few hours, and a few ours later out west the mid terms are just about over. but for accounting which means