The full magnitude of the Republican Party’s success in reshaping the national political landscape at President Obama’s expense became clearer Wednesday morning as the party seemed headed toward an even longer list of electoral victories in Senate and governor races that had been too close to call before dawn.
White House officials, waking to far deeper losses than they had expected in races across the country, announced that Mr. Obama would hold a news conference at 2:50 p.m. Eastern time to address the Republicans’ campaign victories and preview his response to the electorate’s punishing message.
In Alaska, the winner of the Senate race remained uncertain Wednesday morning, though the Republican candidate, Dan Sullivan, moved into a small lead in the vote count and appeared poised to oust Senator Mark Begich, a Democrat. A victory by Mr. Sullivan would further whittle away Mr. Obama’s support in a Senate that has for years served as the president’s bulwark in Congress against the Republican-controlled House.
If Mr. Sullivan wins and Republicans succeed in ousting Senator Mary L. Landrieu in Louisiana in a runoff election next month, Republicans would command a 54-vote majority in the Senate, a gain of nine seats and an almost complete turnaround from the current chamber, where Democrats control 55 seats.
In Virginia, Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat, was slightly ahead in the vote count in his bid for re-election, but his Republican challenger, Ed Gillespie, a former lobbyist and Republican political adviser, was within less than a percentage point and could request a recount in that state.
Republican candidates for governor in Maryland, Maine and Massachusetts also claimed overnight victories over Democratic opponents in states that by all accounts should have been bright spots for the president and his allies in an otherwise dismal election season. In Connecticut and Colorado, the races for governor remained too close to call.
“Governors get things done. That’s what the country wants,” Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, chairman of the Republican Governors Association, said on the “Today” show on NBC on Wednesday. Mr. Christie dodged questions about his own presidential ambitions, saying that “today is a day to celebrate what my fellow governors have done.”
In the House, Democratic losses mounted overnight, too, as Republicans approached their largest majority since the 1940s. Representative Greg Walden, Republican of Oregon and the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, called the results a “referendum on the president’s policies” but said he hoped the two parties could find a way to work together.
“There’s a big basket of ideas to make America better that we need to work through,” Mr. Walden said on CNN. “America wants us to go in a different direction. But they do want us to do our jobs.”
Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the former House speaker who lost her gavel to Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio in 2010, issued a terse and grim statement at 10 minutes before 2 a.m. conceding the obvious but vowing to keep pushing a Democratic agenda.
Ms. Pelosi said that it was “a difficult night for Democrats” but that her members would “continue to fight for middle-class families, who are the backbone of our democracy.”
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