Glen Urquhart, in his concession speech last night, said that his campaign had done better than any Republican candidate had done “in a while.” It probably depends on what he means by “a while.” Here’s the results from last night:
U.S. Senate
Chris Coons………….56.6%…..173,900
Christine O’Donnell…40.0%…..123,025
Others…………………..3.4%……10,200
U.S. House of Representatives
John Carney…………56.8%…..173,443
Glen Urquhart………..41.0%…..125,408
Others…………………..2.2%…….6,651
So, yes, Urquhart did outperform O’Donnell by a small amount ~2,000 votes. But you know who did better? Colin Bonini, who received 146,991 votes and Tom Wagner, who received 150,110 votes (and won).
You know who else did better? Mike Castle in 2008, who received 235,437 votes (61.1%). Even though O’Donnell had her best performance in terms of % of the vote (35.3% in 2008 compared to 40.0% in 2010), she still received less votes in 2010 (123,025) than in 2008 (140,595).
On a side not can I say that the polls were actually pretty damn accurate? O’Donnell didn’t break 41%, which was her ceiling even in the most GOP-friendly polls like Rasmussen and the last Monmouth poll. O’Donnell did succeed in taking 1-2% off of Coons’s total, if you look at the unusually large 3rd party vote. Urq’s support seemed to collapse again (polls had him 2-5% better than O’Donnell), similar to his performance in the Republican primary. I guess Urquhart can’t seal the deal with voters.