by Melissa Gruz, US Editor for the BBC's Biodun Iginla

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John Boehner: "The American people have sent a message to Obama - change course"

US Republicans have seized the House of Representatives in mid-term elections, dealing a severe blow to President Barack Obama's ability to pass laws.

On a tide of economic unease, they won at least 60 seats from the Democrats.

However, Mr Obama's Democrats narrowly retained control of the Senate, despite losing six seats, including some to candidates backed by the Tea Party.

The president phoned John Boehner, the likely new House speaker, to say he hoped to "find common ground" with him.

Speaking after his own re-election, Mr Boehner vowed to cut spending and reduce the size of government. He said voters had sent Mr Obama a message to "change course".

Compounding the misery for Mr Obama's camp, a Republican captured the president's old Senate seat in Illinois.

But in Nevada, one of the most dramatic contests of the night, the Democrats' leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, fought off Tea Party challenger Sharron Angle. US Senator John Kerry reacted with delight: "Harry Reid isn't just Dracula, he isn't just Lazarus, he's our leader and our whole caucus is thrilled that he's unbreakable and unbeatable."

While some of the Tea Party's most eccentric candidates lost their races, the conservative wing of the Republican Party is now a power in the land, BBC North America editor Mark Mardell reports.

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This is a stinging setback for a president who was elected with so much hope and so much exuberance”

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Mark Mardell BBC North America editor

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• Mark Mardell: Voters punish Obama

This is hugely difficult for the president, our editor says. While there will be much talk of compromise and reaching deals, many Tea Party supporters' explicit aim is to block and undo Mr Obama's agenda.

Up for election were all 435 seats in the House (the lower chamber of Congress), 37 of the 100 seats in the Senate, governorships of 37 of the 50 states and all but four state legislatures.

With some counts still to be completed, projections suggested the Republicans had obtained a net gain of 60 seats in the House, more than the 54 they won in the landmark 1994 mid-terms, and the biggest exchange of seats since the Democrats won 75 in 1948.

Senate results from Washington State, Alaska and Colorado have still to be called, as well as the race for governor of Florida.

And among various local referendums, an attempt to legalise marijuana in California was defeated, while Oklahoma backed a measure banning judges from using Islamic law in rulings.

As well as Illinois, Republicans took Senate seats from Democrats in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arkansas, North Dakota and Indiana.

In Arkansas, John Boozman defeated incumbent Blanche Lincoln in a historic reverse for the Democrats.

Rand Paul, a favourite with the anti-establishment Tea Party movement, held Kentucky for the Republicans.

"We've come to take our government back!" Mr Paul said in his victory speech, adding there was a "Tea Party tidal wave".

However, his fellow Senate victor in Florida, Marco Rubio, sounded a note of caution.

"We make a grave mistake if we believe tonight these results are somehow an embrace of the Republican Party," he said after defeating both independent Charlie Crist and Democrat Kendrick Meek.

"What they are is a second chance - a second chance for Republicans to be what they said they were going to be not so long ago."

Backed by former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, the Tea Party movement had managed to replace establishment Republican candidates with their candidates in some areas.

However, prominent Tea Party figure Christine O'Donnell lost her Senate bid in Delaware.

Other good news for the Democrats came in from West Virginia, where Joe Manchin won a Senate seat for the party, and Connecticut, where Richard Blumenthal also won a seat, beating Linda McMahon, a former World Wrestling Entertainment chief executive.

Analysts note that Mr Manchin had distanced himself from some of President Obama's policies.

An ABC exit poll suggested that 88% of Americans believed the national economy was in bad shape - nearly as many as said the same just before Barack Obama was elected.

According to ABC's findings, 73% described themselves as dissatisfied or even angry (26%) about the way the federal government was working, compared with 69% in 1994, when the Republicans seized the House.

In addition to the Congressional races, some states elected governors

• John Kasich defeated Ted Strickland in Ohio, thus handing the Republicans control of a state considered crucial to the 2012 presidential election

• In California, Democrat Jerry Brown defeated Republican Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay

• In New York, Democrat Andrew Cuomo won the office his father held in the 1980s and early 1990s

In a given state, the party that controls the state legislature and holds the governor's office has influence over the redrawing of the Congressional district map for the next 10 years.

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by Melissa Gruz, US News Analyst, for the BBC's Biodun Iginla

Two stars of the Tea Party movement, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul, will now be going to Washington.

Early results in the US mid-term elections are looking bad for President Barack Obama's government with a series of Republican Senate wins.

Republicans seem to have taken at least three Senate seats from the Democrats - in Arkansas, Indiana and North Dakota.

Two stars of the Republicans' Tea Party movement, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul, won in Florida and Kentucky.

Democrats may hold on to the Senate but are expected to lose their majority in the House of Representatives.

Republicans appear to have tapped into voter discontent with the economy.

"If unemployment is 9.6%, if [voters] feel that the economy is not rebounding, they are going to hold responsible the president and whoever is in charge in Congress," Robert Reich, former labour secretary in President Bill Clinton's cabinet, told the BBC World Service.

Up for election are all 435 seats in the House (the lower chamber of Congress), 37 of the 100 seats in the Senate, governorships of 37 of the 50 states and all but four state legislatures.

The Republicans need to gain 39 seats to win control of the House, and early returns favoured their candidates in Indiana.

The last polls will close in Alaska at 0000 EDT.

In Arkansas, John Boozman defeated incumbent Blanche Lincoln in a historic reverse for the Democrats.

Rand Paul, a favourite with the Tea Party movement, held Kentucky for the Republicans.

He was the first figure backed by the populist Tea Party to win a Senate race. Democrats had tried to portray him as being too far outside the mainstream to get elected.

In Florida, Marco Rubio defeated both independent Charlie Crist and the Democrat, Kendrick Meek.

Backed by former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, the Tea Party movement had managed to replace establishment Republican candidates in some areas with more conservative figures.

However, a prominent Tea Party figure, Christine O'Donnell, in Delaware, lost her bid for a seat in the Senate.

Ms O'Donnell was dogged by old television footage in which she spoke out against masturbation and talked about dabbling in witchcraft.

Other good news for the Democrats came in from West Virginia, where Joe Manchin won a Senate seat for the party, and Connecticut, where Richard Blumenthal likewise won a seat, beating Linda McMahon, the former World Wrestling Entertainment chief executive.

Analysts note that Mr Manchin had distanced himself from some of President Obama's policies.

In other early results

• Ohio, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Oklahoma each returned a Republican senator
• Indiana's 8th District, seen as a bellwether seat for the House, was taken by a Republican

• Vermont appeared to be a hold for the Democrats

• A Democrat kept the governor's seat in New Hampshire

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Voters at a polling station in Vienna, Virginia, on the issues influencing their vote

An ABC exit poll of voter opinion, not voting intentions, suggests that 88% of Americans believed the national economy was in bad shape - nearly as many as said the same just before Barack Obama was elected.

According to ABC's findings, 73% described themselves as dissatisfied or even angry (26%) about the way the federal government was working, compared with 69% in 1994, when the Republicans seized the House.

The ABC poll will make for gloomy reading in the White House, BBC North America editor Mark Mardell says. It portrays a country deeply ill at ease with its government.

Mr Obama continued giving radio interviews on election day, placing calls from the Oval Office to stations across the US to help rally Democratic support in favour of an post-recession, economic revival.

"Are we taking the steps now to move us in the right direction, or are going to go back to the policies that got us into that mess in the first place?" the president asked the audience of one Los Angeles radio station.

Republicans were buoyantly forecasting a new era of divided government.

"This is going to be a big day," said House Minority Leader John Boehner, who would be speaker in a Republican-dominated House, when he voted near his home in West Chester, Ohio.

If Republicans take control in either the House or Senate, President Obama could face difficulty when attempting to enact his proposals during the next two years. A Republican victory could also force Mr Obama to fight off attacks on health care legislation and bills already signed into law.

The results of the day's gubernatorial and state legislative elections could also have a big impact on the future of American politics.

In a given state, the party that controls the state legislature and holds the governor's office has influence over the redrawing of the Congressional district map for the next 10 years.

Frank Newport, editor-in-chief of the Gallup market research firm, said the polls suggested that Republicans would do well.

Mr Obama inspired Americans who did not normally vote to turn out in 2008 but the same groups did not seem likely to vote in the Mid-Terms, he said.

But he added that it would be a mistake to assume a poor showing in the Mid-Terms would mean a defeat for Mr Obama at the next presidential election.

In addition to the Congressional contests, voters are deciding on state-level measures ranging from marijuana legalisation in California to a referendum in Oklahoma on forbidding judges from using Islamic Sharia law in rulings.

If Californians decide in favour of legalising marijuana possession for personal use, it will put their state at odds with federal law.

In most cases a selection of your comments will be published, displaying your name as you provide it and location unless you state otherwise. But your contact details will never be published. When sending us pictures, video or eyewitness accounts at no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws.

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