A year ago, North Carolina Senator Elizabeth Dole appeared to hold a safe Republican seat in a solid “red” state. But as her victorious Democratic challenger Kay Hagan put it tonight, “What a difference a year makes.”

Political strategists will, no doubt, spend the upcoming months analyzing this race and come up with a slew of factors that led to Dole’s defeat. But voters already have their ideas.

I received this email on Facebook from Steve, a FOX News viewer in Charlotte, NC:

Her advisers blew it with the Anti-God ad. Lots of people have moved here from the North and are good Christians but, they are Democrats. I am a staunch Republican but, I took offense to it. Especially since I was aware of Kay Hagan’s faith.

Steve is referring to an ad the Dole campaign launched last week, attempting to link Hagan to an atheist group.

The issue stems from a September fundraiser Hagan attended in Boston. Among some 40 individuals hosting the event was an adviser to Godless Americans, a political action committee that lobbies for separation of church and state.

Dole’s ad was an apparent appeal to the GOP’s conservative base. But the move may have appeared awkward coming from a senator who was generally considered a moderate Republican. And attacking her opponent on religion was a long shot, given that Hagan is a Presbyterian church elder and longtime Sunday school teacher.

By Alicia Acuna

Denver, Co - 8:10 pm: Excitement is building here at the gathering place for Colorado Democrats as the polls closed here just a little over an hour ago. The crowd already celebrating what they know about the race so far.
There are have been few problems reported. Will be sending pics soon!

Here in the state capital, as soon as FOX called Ohio for Obama,  EVERYONE from the secretary of state’s office ran behind the curtain to where we believe her office is.  There has been a lot of tension here tonight. This was ground zero in the 2004 election and everyone was focused on the provisional ballots as the most likely source of litigation.

Whether it is wishful thinking, or all the networks will turn out to be wrong, the primary media contact for the state GOP in Ohio is not ready to concede.  When I reached John McClelland you could hear it was extremely busy in the room where he was, people calling over each other, and a few choice works appeared to be flying.

McClelland who has been very forward leaning with information about the race said point blank they are not ready to concede because they were over performing in many of  their counties. And he claimed that the counties yet to be counted were predominantly Republican.   His bottom line is that the number of votes being considered, so far, was just to small to make it real.

About a half hour from now we are expecting another news conference from the secretary of state where we will get the first real numbers…..

As I type this blog, a massive crowd, is cheering the arrival of Kay Hagan, the Democrat who defeated Republican U.S. Senator Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina.

“What a difference a year makes,” Hagan says, commenting on the doubts she faced when she first entered the race against what, then, appeared to be a safe Republican Senator in an historically “red” state.

“To the North Carolinians who didn’t vote for me, I am going to be working hard for the next six years to earn your vote,” she says, adding that the solutions to the problems facing North Carolina and the United States do not carry party labels. “Stop the partisan bickering. Work together and get started fixing things right now.”

She promises the crowd help for small businesses and the middle class, which she predicts will be the driving engines of an economic recovery.

The speech ends. The crowd cheers.