Republican Donald Trump at press time Tuesday would need to run the table to become the 45th president of the United States but had already exceeded the expectations of most pollsters and pundits with his performance.
While the race with Hillary Clinton was still too close to call, the GOP appeared on the verge of holding a majority in the U.S. Senate and had secured control of the U.S. House.
Just a few months ago, Democrats were predicting a landslide victory for Clinton, a turnover in Senate control and a possible flip of the House. However, the FBI's investigation into her illegal use of an unsecured email server during her four years in the Obama administration, her subsequent obfuscations about her use of it and the WikiLeaks release of emails from many of her campaign intimates showing a cynical and petty campaign took their toll.
If she were to win the presidency and become the nation's first female president, her mandate would be nonexistant and her coattails few.
Trump captured the swing states of North Carolina and Ohio, but he fell short in Virginia and Colorado, which were not states he was expected to win but are former Republican states that could have made his path easier.
A presidential victory for Clinton would be a monumental achievement for women, who didn't have the right to vote in the United States until 1920.
Clinton and her husband, Bill, also would become the first husband and wife to be president, he having served two terms in the office from 1993 to 2001.
Trump easily won Tennessee, capturing around 65 percent of the vote to Clinton's 31 percent. In the March presidential primary, he also had won the state, capturing 94 of its 95 counties.
He also took the vote in Hamilton County, rolling up more than 75,000 votes to fewer than 60,000 for Clinton.
If Clinton wins, we hope the Senate and House prove to be roadblocks for some of her most extreme legislation.
Neither of Tennessee's U.S. senators nor its governor were on the ballot, but voters kept the same political balance in its congressional delegation. Seven Republicans, including 3rd District U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, and two Democrats will return to Washington, D.C., with the next Congress. The only different name will be that of David Kustoff, who won the race to succeed the retiring Stephen Fincher in the state's 8th District.
Fleischmann won all 11 counties in the district and nearly two-thirds of the votes to fewer than a third for Democratic newcomer Melody Shekari, who was unable to persuade voters they had a reason to change horses. She tried to make hay of the incumbent's decision not to debate her and attempted to use a friendly photo of her and Fleischmann taken at the Times Free Press to smear him, but voters didn't buy it.
Voters also re-elected 10th District state Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, over Democratic novice Khristy Wilkinson. The incumbent narrowly lost Hamilton County but scored a huge margin in Bradley County to keep his seat.
Gardenhire had angered some voters in 2014 when he voted in committee against Gov. Bill Haslam's Insure Tennessee plan to use federal funding for health care coverage for more than 200,000 state residents, a fact Wilkinson attempted to exploit. The Democrat also attempted to score points by bringing up an issue in a previous Gardenhire marriage 20 years ago and with an erroneous late charge by a Hamilton County organization that one of Gardenhire's relatives more than 150 years ago was a slave trader, but they appeared to have little effect.
Hamilton County's entire state House delegation also will return intact, three of the members, Rep. Gerald McCormick, R-Hixson (District 26), Rep. Mike Carter, R-Ooltewah (District 29), and Rep. JoAnne Favors, D-Chattanooga (District 28), having no general-election opposition.
Rep. Patsy Hazlewood, R-Signal Mountain (District 27), and Rep. Marc Gravitt, R-East Ridge (District 30), had opposition in name, but their Democratic and independent opponents did almost no campaigning.
In the special election for Hamilton County Commission, Republican Greg Martin outdistanced independent Joe Smith, despite being outspent with money the victor repeatedly claimed came from outside the district. Once Martin, currently a member of the Hamilton County Board of Education, is sworn as commissioner, the school board will have a spot to fill at a crucial time when it considers the hiring of a new superintendent.