There were setbacks for Republicans as first results came through in the mid-term elections. Strong black support for Democrats in close races was seen as a vital factor.
The first results showed Republicans losing some Senate seats and governorships in southern states where they would normally expect to win. In New York, the Democratic challenger, Mr Charles Schumer, seemed certain to cause a big upset by beating the incumbent, Senator Al D'Amato.
But observers were cautious about drawing firm conclusions from early results based on exit polls. It seemed clear, however, that Democrats were doing much better than would normally be expected in a mid-term election and especially after the tribulations of President Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair.
The better the result for the Democrats, the harder it will be for the Republicans in the new Congress to push through any impeachment of President Clinton. Democrats were also confidently claiming a big victory in California in the election for governor of the most populous state where the post has been held for the past 16 years by Republicans.
But Republicans still expressed confidence that they could keep control of both houses of Congress as results started to come in. Two sons of the former Republican president, Mr George Bush, won the governorships of Florida and Texas.
Mr Jeb Bush defeated the incumbent Democrat governor in Florida and Mr George Bush junior easily retained his Texas governorship making him a leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000.
President Clinton, who had restricted his campaigning for Democrats because of the fall-out from the Lewinsky scandal, had earlier expressed uncertainty about the likely results when he spoke to reporters at the White House after the polls had opened.
He said that eight of the Senate races and about three dozen House of Representatives contests were too close to call. Democratic party officials' tactic of targeting African-American voters in a barrage of last minute telephone calls to urge them to get out and vote seemed to work. The black vote was seen as able to swing some key contests for the Democrats.
At stake in this election were all 435 seats in the House, 34 or one-third of the Senate seats and 36 governorships. Republicans, who control both houses by a small majority, had hoped that they could increase their seats, especially if there was a low turnout as expected.
Democrats were relieved that the big gains predicted for Republicans less than two months ago because of the President's admission of an affair with Ms Lewinsky were fading as results came in. The House Speaker, Mr Newt Gingrich's prediction that the Republicans would gain between six to 30 seats in the house and two to six in the Senate looked far too optimistic at their upper end.
The appetite for impeachment now looks like diminishing. The house voted for a wide-ranging impeachment inquiry before rising last month and a committee will resume work on the investigation next week but in a more subdued fashion.
Negative advertising in which candidates made personal attacks on their opponents were a feature of this election. Huge sums were spent on TV advertising but Republicans had more funds at their disposal.
Meanwhile in an embarrassing gaffe ABC News had to apologise for posting election results on its website before voters even went to the polls.