Republicans win key Massachusetts Senate election
Scott Brown's win is a major political upset
Republican Scott Brown has won the race for the US Senate seat in the state of Massachusetts left vacant by Edward Kennedy's death.
Democrat Martha Coakley conceded she had lost the election after partial results gave Mr Brown a healthy lead.
Her defeat is a huge blow to President Barack Obama, whose healthcare reform programme is now in doubt.
The Republican win has robbed the Democrats of their filibuster-proof 60-seat majority in the Senate.
Healthcare reform is the most important domestic policy objective of his first year as president.
The BBC's Paul Adams, in Boston, says this Senate race should have been a formality for the Democrats - they outnumber Republicans in Massachusetts by about three to one, and the seat being contested was controlled by the Kennedy family for more than half a century.
If the Republicans win, none of the options for healthcare reform are palatable for the president and all carry considerable dangers
Ms Coakley has run a lacklustre campaign, allowing her Republican opponent - with vigorous support from conservative activists - to overtake her in the polls.
Mr Obama went to Boston on Sunday to lend support to the Coakley campaign, a sign of the growing apprehension felt by the White House.
Amid the national attention on the election, money, activists and party officials poured into Massachusetts for both sides ahead of Tuesday's election.
MARTHA COAKLEY: Born in 1953; pursued a legal career and made a name for herself in child abuse cases, most notably that of Louise Woodward, a British nanny convicted of a baby's manslaughter in 1997; in 2006, became the state's first woman elected attorney general; if elected, would become the state's first female senator
SCOTT BROWN: Born in 1959; a lawyer, little-known Massachusetts state senator and National Guard member, although never deployed; running on a ticket of lowering taxes and "bringing common sense back to Washington" and made a signature issue of opposing President Obama's healthcare bill
Mr Brown has said he hopes to be sworn in as quickly as possible.
He arrived at the polls in the green pick-up truck he used to criss-cross Massachusetts during the campaign, and which has featured in TV advertisements that aimed to burnish his appeal to blue-collar and independent voters.
Analysts say that with opinion polls showing that nearly half of all Americans think President Obama is not delivering on his major campaign promises, the Massachusetts race could be seen as a referendum on his first year in office.
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