Claire McCaskill Wins Missouri: Akin and Legitimate Rape Lose Seats for GOP

Various networks, with 20% of the vote in, have called the Missouri Senate race for incumbent Senator Claire McCaskill. Although Congressman Todd Akin was the senator's preferred opponent, McCaskill was thought to have an uphill race until Akin's unfortunate 'legitimate rape' comments in August. Since then, Akin's approval rating has plummeted.

Tonight, that approval rating proved to be prescient. As a friend of mine said, "Todd Akin wanted to be a senator, but the democratic process has ways of shutting that down."

Despite Akin's approval rating, this outcome is still somewhat of a surprise, as Romney has a huge lead in the state, and many pundits thought Akin would ride those coattails. Actually, as the previous link demonstrates, many Republicans are up in statewide races, with the exception of the gubernatorial and attorney general fights. It turns out that Akin's extreme positions really sunk his campaign.

With this win, Democrats are almost certain to retain the Senate: there's virtually no way the Republicans could retake the upper body.

PolicyMic is live blogging the election tonight. For more updates on Missouri and the presidential election, follow along here.