Connecticut Senate race: First reactions to Democrat Chris Murphy's victory

Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Chris Murphy (right) shakes hands with U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) at a rally in Hartford, Conn. on Nov. 5.

(Image credit: AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

last updated January 8, 2015

Rep. 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.