By Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Senate Democrat who faced voter anger over her support for bank bailouts and healthcare legislation survived a strong challenge on Tuesday as U.S. voters in 11 states chose candidates for midterm elections in November.
Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, a moderate Democrat and a key figure in U.S. financial regulation legislation, narrowly defeated the state's lieutenant governor, Bill Halter, after most political analysts had written her off.
In California, two women who are former corporate CEOs, Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman, coasted to victory in Republican primary races for a chance at statewide offices.
Lincoln's win defied a "throw-the-bums-out" mood that is sweeping the United States as recession-weary voters register their disapproval with the economic record of both parties in Washington in recent years.
She survived a multimillion-dollar ad campaign paid for by unions and liberal groups who said she had lost touch with her home state.
"I have heard your message," she told a victory rally in Little Rock. "Washington needs to work for us in Arkansas."
A Washington Post poll published on Tuesday found that only 26 percent of the public approved of the job the U.S. Congress was doing and only 49 percent approved of the way their representatives were handling the job.
Those numbers are worse than in 1994, when Republicans recaptured control of Congress for the first time in 40 years.
Playing on voter frustration at unemployment, Republicans are poised to take away seats from President Barack Obama's Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate in the November 2 election. All 435 House seats are up for grabs and 36 of the Senate's 100 seats.
BIG NIGHT FOR WOMEN
Billionaire political novice Whitman, a former eBay Inc chief executive, won the Republican nomination for governor and will face a long-time figure in California politics, Democrat Jerry Brown, in the race to succeed Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Former Hewlett-Packard chief Fiorina defeated two other candidates for the Republican nomination to face one of Obama's strongest allies, Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer, who is facing an uncertain path to a fourth term.
"California will now be offered two candidates at the top of our ticket who have actually created jobs and cut costs and we look forward to taking on the career politicians on the other side," Fiorina said in her victory speech.
The California governor's race is on track to be the most expensive campaign in U.S. history outside a presidential contest, with the two Republican candidates alone spending more than $100 million in the primary.
The victors will face major challenges: California is suffering from unemployment which is at a modern record 12.6 percent and the state government has a $20 billion budget gap.
Feeling political heat in Arkansas over the bank bailouts, Lincoln authored a provision that would force banks to spin off their swaps desks, which potentially could cost them billions of dollars in revenue.
Her proposal is one of the most controversial elements of a financial regulation reform bill to be negotiated in Congress this week.
She has also faced anger from the left for her opposition to parts of U.S. healthcare legislation -- and from the right after she eventually voted for it.
Defeat for Lincoln would have extended Obama's losing streak. In the past months he has backed Democratic candidates in races in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia and Massachusetts and all have lost.
She faces a tough November election against the Republican candidate, John Boozman, but she will have the support of Obama and former President Bill Clinton, who is from Arkansas and campaigned for her last week.
In Nevada, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat facing an uphill battle for re-election in his home state, likely got a boost when Republicans chose conservative Tea Party favourite Sharron Angle to face him.
Democrats charge the Tea Party is too conservative for mainstream Americans, a theme Reid is likely to repeat on the road to November.
The anti-incumbent wave claimed another victim when Republicans voted to oust Republican Governor Jim Gibbons of Nevada.
In South Carolina, Republican state representative Nikki Haley won the party's primary vote but fell just short of the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff.
