A NEWLY re-elected President Barack Obama will once again deal with a divided Congress as Democrats retain control of the US Senate and Republicans kept their solid majority in the House of Representatives.
The results of Tuesday's election mean that President Barack Obama, despite being re-elected to a second term, will face the same Republican pushback in 2013 that has hurt efforts to enact his major legislation.
Democrats had been seen as vulnerable to losing control of the Senate, since they had more seats to defend, but they were assured of retaining or even increasing their 53-47 advantage. Among the winners for the Democrats was the first openly gay US senator.
Republican candidates in Missouri and Indiana - both states won by Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney - were defeated after making damaging comments about rape and abortion. An incumbent Republican fell in liberal Massachusetts. Republicans also lost a seat in Maine, where an independent who is expected to caucus with the Democrats won.
Only a dozen or so Senate races out of the 33 on the ballot were seen as competitive, and almost all of those that were called on Tuesday - in Wisconsin, Virginia, Connecticut, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Florida - went the Democrats' way. Republicans picked up a Democratic-held seat in Nebraska.
More than $US2 billion ($A1.9 billion) was spent on the nasty fight for Congress. All 435 House seats were on the ballot, and Republicans retained control there, though Democrats made a few gains.
Control of the Senate at the very least gives Democrats a firewall against Republican attempts to overturn Obama's signature legislative achievement, his health care reform law, before it is fully implemented in 2014. Republicans had promised to repeal it.
The first post-election test of wills could start next week, when Congress returns from its election recess to deal with unfinished business - including a looming "fiscal cliff" of $400 billion in higher taxes and $100 billion in automatic cuts in military and domestic spending to take effect in January if Congress doesn't head them off. Economists warn that the combination could plunge the nation back into a recession.
Newly elected Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat who won a marquee race against incumbent Scott Brown, said on Wednesday she believes there is a "lot of room for compromise" on the impending fiscal crisis.
Warren, a favourite among liberals as a leading consumer advocate, told NBC's Today that Congress can find a middle ground to bring down the deficit by cutting spending while raising revenues.
In the new Senate, Democrats will remain below the 60-vote supermajority needed to easily pass legislation under Senate rules.
"Now that the election is over, it's time to put politics aside and work together to find solutions," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said the voters have not endorsed the "failures or excesses of the president's first term," but rather have given him more time to finish the job.
"To the extent he wants to move to the political centre, which is where the work gets done in a divided government, we'll be there to meet him half way," McConnell said.
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