Republicans regain control of US Senate in mid-term election sweep

Republicans won a commanding majority in the US Senate in the midterm elections, and pushed their dominance of Congress to near-historic levels in the final two years of Barack Obama's presidency.

Voters unhappy with Obama, worried about the economy and weary of partisan gridlock in Washington gave Republicans a majority in both chambers of Congress for the first time since elections in 2006.

Polls had indicated that Republicans were likely to pick up the six Senate seats they needed for a majority. In the event they took at least seven, giving them at least 52 of the 100 seats.

Obama, whose 40 per cent job approval rating weighed down the Democrats, watched election returns from the White House and saw little to warm his spirits, as what had been a comfortable 55-45 Democratic advantage in the Senate quickly melted away.

The Republican takeover of the Senate in January will force him to scale back his legislative agenda and limit his ambitions to either executive actions that do not require legislative approval, or items that might gain bipartisan support, such as trade agreements and tax reform.