Insurgent Republican Wins in Delaware

That was the headline at New York Times earlier. After I got home, my kid had on Disney Channel, so no cable news. Then we started homework. Checking NYT's homepage, I was able to tweet the news right as the election was called:

The Tea Party movement scored another victory on Tuesday, helping to propel a dissident Republican, Christine O’Donnell, to a stunning upset win over Representative Michael N. Castle in the race for the United States Senate nomination in Delaware.

Mr. Castle, a moderate Republican who served two terms as governor and has been reliably winning elections for the last four decades, became the latest establishment Republican casualty of the primary election season. Republican leaders said the victory by Ms. O’Donnell complicated the party’s chances of winning control of the Senate.

Also at WaPo, "Christine O'Donnell upsets Mike Castle in Delaware Senate primary":

Marketing consultant Christine O'Donnell upset Rep. Mike Castle in the Delaware Republican Senate primary tonight, handing the tea party movement a major victory and giving Democrats an unexpected chance to hold the First State seat.

O'Donnell, who is making her third run for the Senate in as many elections, relied heavily on national surrogates -- from the Tea Party Express to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin -- to fuel a shoestring campaign against the iconic Castle who had held elected office in the state for more than four decades.

"The people of Delaware have spoken," said O'Donnell in her victory speech. "No more politics as usual."

The O'Donnell victory, which was considered a political impossibility as recently as a month ago, is a major boost for Democratic hopes of holding the seat once held by Vice President Joe Biden. New Castle County Executive Chris Coons was unchallenged for the Democratic Senate nomination.

"I'm sad to say the Delaware primary results tonight are straight out of Harry Reid's dream journal," said prominent Republican strategist Mike Murphy of the O'Donnell win.

While the Delaware race was the marquee contest of the night, it was far from the only one on the ledger as seven states and the District of Columbia voted in the final major primaries of the 2010 election.

More at the link.

As noted yesterday, I rarely tuned into this race, although I found Dan Riehl's blogging to be way ahead just about everyone else. So hats off to the dude on that. Definitely made all the naysayers eat shit, especially Patterico.

William Jacobson's also been doing yoeman's work on this, and this video of Mike Castle would have been all I needed to make a decision earlier. Cut-and-run Republicans are just do lame:

William's got additional comments: "Unite for November."