Republicans Take First Senate Seat From Democrats as Shelley Moore Capito Wins in West Virginia

WASHINGTON (TheBlaze/AP) -- Republican Shelley Moore Capito was named the winner of U.S. Senate race in West Virginia, making it the GOP's first seat pickup in the Senate, the Associated Press reports.

U.S. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., looks out on the crowd during a debate with Democratic hopeful Natalie Tennant for the U.S. Senate seat at the Clay Center in Charleston, W.Va. on Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014. (AP Photo/Tyler Evert)

Capito became the first of her party to win a Senate race in West Virginia since 1956. Republicans also reached out for relatively easy pickings among Senate seats held by Democrats in South Dakota and Montana, and took aim at Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor in Arkansas.

Republicans needed to gain six seats in all to oust a Democratic Senate majority in place since 2006.

Nearly two thirds of those interviewed after casting ballots said the country was seriously off on the wrong track. Only about 30 percent said it was generally going in the right direction.

More than four in ten voters disapprove of both Obama and Congress, according to preliminary results of interviews with voters leaving the polls in surveys conducted for the Associated Press and the television networks. The president's disapproval level exceeded 50 percent