The chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee on Wednesday said the GOP's huge election wins on Tuesday night could be the start of decades of Republican control in Congress.
"We're back to majorities as big as any of us have seen in our lifetimes," NRCC Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) told reporters in Washington. "It may be a 100-year majority."
Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus said voters rejected President Barack Obama's agenda on Tuesday night, and Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) said the vote could mean decades of GOP majorities in Congress. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Republicans picked up seven seats, and are likely to add two more in the coming days. They also gained nine seats in the House, and could gain more as the final votes are tallied.
Walden and others noted that President Barack Obama told voters that his policies were on the ballot this year, and said voters seem to have rejected those policies completely.
"Barack Obama's agenda was on the ballot," Walden said. "There was a referendum. It's historic, it's major."
While some are debating whether Republicans have a "mandate" from voters, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said the election results show clear opposition to both Obama's priorities, and those of possible presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
"This was all about a direct rejection of the Obama agenda," Priebus said. "As all of you know, President Obama said very clearly that his policies were on the ballot, and voters were very clear in return."
"They want nothing to do with the policies of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton," he said.
Priebus also said the results show the voters' disgust with a do-nothing Senate led by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).
"We had a decisive win in the Senate, which was a clear defeat for Harry Reid's dysfunctional leadership," he said. "His refusal to allow votes in the Senate in order to protect incumbents backfired, and actually ensured their defeat."
sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said he was told directly by Reid two years ago that the Senate would do nothing at all until the next election.
"We reject that kind of leadership that says we're not going to do anything," Moran said.
