Decision 2014: Democrats hold governor’s office, GOP seizes pivotal Senate seat

There’s a rising political star in this country and he’s a fifth-generation Coloradan.

Senator-elect Cory Gardner is riding a GOP wave to a handy victory in a midterm election that many pundits view as a referendum on President Obama.

“We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us and in two years if we don’t get the job done in 2016 people are going to say enough is enough,” Gardner told KRDO NewsChannel 13 in an interview Tuesday night. “We have an electorate that’s tired of people not doing their job and that’s our commitment, we have to do our job.”

The Republicans will control both houses of Congress during the final two years of the Obama presidency.

“To everyone who voted I hear you,” Obama said Wednesday. “To the two-thirds of people who did not vote, I hear you, too.”

Sen. Mark Udall called his six years as senator the “best job in the world.” It came to an end Tuesday night with an emotional concession speech.

“I thought about Abe Lincoln, you know his famous story about the boy who stubbed his toe and he said it hurts too much to laugh but he was too big to cry,” Udall said.

For 14 hours after the polls closed, the race for governor in Colorado was too close to call. But a late surge in Democratic strongholds earned Gov. John Hickenlooper a second term, defeating Republican challenger Bob Beauprez by a slim margin of a little more than 37,000 votes.

After a hard-fought campaign, a victorious Hickenlooper spoke at the state Capitol in Denver.

“I think I can now demonstrate that one even with almost no sleep can still feel great joy,” Hickenlooper said. “Colorado has and will continue to grow so let’s get on with it.”

Beauprez’s concession came late Wednesday afternoon.

Colorado remains one of the most politically divided states in our union.

Obama won the Centennial State in both 2008 and 2012. Its nine electoral votes could swing either direction in the 2016 presidential race.