Alaska Senator Wins Write-In Campaign

Republican Lisa Murkowski has become the first U.S. Senator to win re-election through a write-in campaign in more than 50 years.

Murkowski clinched victory Wednesday as election officials finished a lengthy count of hand-written ballots.

The Republican senator lost her party’s nomination to Joe Miller, a candidate backed by the conservative Tea Party movement, but she urged her supporters to write her name in on the ballot.

Also Wednesday, Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives voted to re-elected Nancy Pelosi to lead their party when the next Congress convenes with a Republican majority in the chamber.

Some Democrats have expressed disappointment in Pelosi after the party lost its House majority in midterm elections earlier this month. Representative Heath Shuler of North Carolina challenged her bid for the minority leadership post but was soundly defeated.

Republicans elected Representative John Boehner of Ohio as their leader, and he is poised to become the speaker of the House when the new Congress convenes in January.

On the Senate side, the two parties on Tuesday re-elected their Senate leaders for the next Congress, with Democrat Harry Reid serving as majority leader, and Mitch McConnell as the Republican minority leader.

U.S. President Barack Obama is scheduled to meet with Republican and Democratic congressional leaders on November 30 to discuss ways to work together.

They were initially scheduled to meet Tuesday, but the engagement was postponed because of scheduling conflicts.

Some information in this story was provided by AP and Reuters.