Democrat Chris Murphy (right) shakes hands with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) at a rally in Hartford, Conn. on Nov. 5: Murphy has joined Blumenthal as a Democrat who body-slammed Linda McMahon in a U.S. Senate race.

AP Photo/Jessica Hill

ep. Chris Murphy (D) beat Republican Linda McMahon, former CEO and co-founder of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), in the race for retiring Sen. Joe Lieberman's Connecticut Senate seat, according to projections from the Associated Press and CBS News. In very early returns, Murphy leads McMahon 65 percent to 34 percent.

In a 2010 campaign against Democrat Richard Blumenthal, McMahon sunk tens of millions of her own fortune into a failed bid for a Senate seat in the famously liberal state. This year, the McMahon-Murphy head-to-head has made for one of the more expensive races in recent memory, with McMahon retooling her image to recast herself, per The New York Times, as a "moderate mother and grandmother." According to Talking Points Memo, the McMahon campaign even went so far as to distribute door hangers urging Obama supporters to vote for the Democratic president and the GOP Senate candidate. Murphy, meanwhile, struggled with name recognition and funding, and needed the help (and funding) of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to sustain himself against McMahon's onslaught of self-funded ads.

Here's what the Twittersphere is saying about Murphy's victory:

Ben Smith at Buzzfeed: 

Lesson of Connecticut —& perhaps Mass.— is perhaps just how hard it is to cling to the rock in the face of national wave in partisan state

— Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) November 7, 2012

 Karen Tumulty at the Washington Post:

Meg Whitman should have had a heart-to--heart with Linda McMahon about what money can and can't buy in politics.

— Karen Tumulty(@ktumulty) November 7, 2012

Maura Johnston says:

Linda McMahon just got [insert your favorite finisher here]d

— maura johnston (@maura) November 7, 2012

Alex Wagner at MSNBC:

Chris Murphy takes Linda McMahon's $43 mill and flushes them down the proverbial political potty. #Yowch

— Alex Wagner (@alexwagner) November 7, 2012

And:

Linda McMahon spent over $100 million on two losing Senat races. What a metaphorical folding chair to the head. nationalmemo.com/liveblog-elect…

— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) November 7, 2012

 And one more for good measure: 

It blows my mind that Linda McMahon has nearly $100m to blow on Senate races....and lose. That's a lot of fake wrestling.

— Annie Goodman (@annieg917) November 7, 2012