BATON ROUGE, La. — Republican Bill Cassidy's defeat of Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu in a Louisiana runoff over the weekend completes the GOP's takeover of Deep South politics and its national domination of the 2014 midterm elections.
But Cassidy, a three-term representative and physician from Baton Rouge, has said little about what he believes Republicans should do with their control of Capitol Hill, other than continuing to battle President Obama through the last two years of his second term.
''The American people do not like the agenda that Barack Obama has staked out for our country, nor do they like the effects of these policies,'' Cassidy told Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace in his only scheduled interview on Sunday.
Cassidy specifically cited the president's health care overhaul and alluded to the administration's regulatory approach to oil, gas, and coal, repeating the GOP mantra that those policies ''kill those jobs.'' He also lambasted Obama's executive action on immigration. But he offered no alternatives to any of those policies.
The senator-elect's lack of details reflected his campaign strategy of making the election about Obama and Landrieu's voting record in support of the White House. That approach was enough to yield a 56 percent to 44 percent victory in a Saturday runoff.
With the win, Republicans will have a 54-seat majority when the Senate convenes in January, to go along with at least 246 seats in the House, compared to 188 for Democrats. A recount remains unsettled in one Arizona House district.
The numbers give Republicans their strongest advantage on Capitol Hill since Harry Truman, a Democrat, was president after World War II. The results also will leave Democrats without a single governor, US senator, or legislative majority across nine Southern states from the Carolinas to Texas.
The shift in the balance of power in Congress is expected to increase veto brinkmanship in national politics.
Until now, controversial Republican-backed legislation rarely reached the president's desk because Senate Democrats blocked it. Starting in January, however, Obama may have to decide more often whether to sign or veto bills crafted by Republicans.
Obama gave lawmakers an early taste of veto politics recently when he forced congressional leaders to drop a proposed package of tax breaks that were popular with many Republican constituents. Some Democrats did support the plan, but liberals and the White House said it tilted too heavily toward corporations, not lower-income workers.
The White House also has promised to veto any bills restricting the president's major changes to immigration policies, setting up likely showdowns early next year.
Cassidy's win in Louisiana capped an election season where Republicans won every Senate race held in a state that Obama lost in 2012, including four where Democratic incumbents suffered defeat.
Perhaps none of that group faced steeper odds than Landrieu.
She narrowly led Cassidy in a Nov. 4 primary that included candidates from all parties on one ballot. But her 42 percent total fell well short of her performance in previous elections.
Exit polls in November showed she got fewer than 1 out of 5 white votes, far short of the third or so that a Democrat needs to win in Louisiana. Almost three out of four white voters told pollsters that they ''strongly disapproved'' of the president.
Alongside those barriers, Landrieu endured a considerable fund-raising and advertising disadvantage in the one-month runoff campaign. National Democrats financially abandoned the race, and of every dollar spent by third-party groups during the runoff, 97 cents benefited Cassidy.
Cassidy, 57, is a veteran physician and faculty member of Louisiana State University's medical training programs.
Landrieu, 59, told supporters Saturday night in New Orleans that she was happy to have waged an active campaign, an implicit contrast with Cassidy, who made few public appearances as he sought to avoid missteps.