WILMINGTON, Del. – Democrat Chris Coons easily won Delaware’s Senate race Tuesday over Republican Christine O’Donnell, a tea party favorite who struggled to shake old cable-show footage in which she spoke out against masturbation and talked about dabbling in witchcraft as a teenager.
Based on an AP analysis of preliminary exit polling data, Coons defeated O’Donnell, an evangelical outsider whose stunning upset in the September GOP primary likely cost Republicans the race. Her opponent in the primary, congressman and former governor Mike Castle, had been considered a shoo-in to win Vice President Joe Biden’s old seat.
With 46 percent of the precincts reporting, Coons had 61 percent of the vote.
Cheers erupted in the downtown Wilmington ballroom when television screens showed Coons the projected winner.
“I’m honored and humbled by the confidence expressed by the voters of Delaware today, but now the hard work begins,” Coons told The Associated Press. “I’ve said all along that this campaign is about Delaware’s families and the challenges they face. Our job now is to see that Washington’s focus is on jobs and getting our country back on track.”