WASHINGTON — Conservatives say they were pleasantly surprised this week with election results outside the presidential race.
The Republican Party kept every statehouse they had, picked up seats in the House of Representatives and won critical battles in the fight for the U.S. Senate. In many respects, it was seen as the best outcome for a political movement that was significantly outspent and defied predictions by pundits and pollsters of huge losses at nearly every level of government.
"I was expecting to have lost about half a dozen statehouses across the country. And we didn't," said Adam Brandon, president of the conservative activist group FreedomWorks. "We actually did quite well. We did a lot better in the suburbs than we planned on doing, than we were expected to do."
