JEFFERSON CITY, MO. — Once considered among the most vulnerable incumbents, Democratic Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill rebounded to win re-election Tuesday over Republican opponent Todd Akin, whose campaign never recovered from his much-criticized remark about “legitimate rape.”
McCaskill capitalized on Akin’s comments about pregnancy and rape by portraying him as a right-wing extremist. Her victory preserved an important Senate seat for Democrats — an outcome that had once seemed unlikely because of McCaskill’s close ties to President Barack Obama, who narrowly lost Missouri in 2008 and was trailing Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney there Tuesday. McCaskill is the first Democratic senator to win re-election in Missouri since Thomas Eagleton in 1980.
Akin, a six-term congressman from suburban St. Louis, reversed the underdog role when he was asked in a TV interview whether abortion should be legal for women who have been raped. He said: “From what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”
McCaskill gained a potent example to bolster her theme that Akin’s views were too extreme.
