The elections are over, and a Democratic tidal wave has swept the nation. The party has retaken the House as well as the Senate as well as many local government positions across the nation.

Republican Rick Santorum lost his Senate seat to a Democrat in Pennsylvania; the Democrats also won Virginia in a tough election. But one of the most unexpected and symbolically important Democratic victories in the Senate was made by Jon Tester in Montana — my home state. Tester took a seat long held by soon-to-be former Sen. Conrad Burns.

If Conrad Burns is a familiar name that you can't quite place with a face, perhaps I can remind you of a few of his "achievements."

Burns is infamous for letting racial slurs fly during speeches and shrugging off the use of the "N" word by his fans during question-and-answer sessions. The controversy surrounding Burns does not end here.

One of my personal favorites was his recent insensitive remark during a campaign speech that terrorists "drive taxi cabs in the daytime and kill at night."

At the national level, Burns is probably most known for the Jack Abramoff scandal, wherein Burns received nearly $150,000 in campaign donations from the political activist-businessman and his clients. Burns then gave preferential treatment to Abramoff's clients, which included American Indian tribes outside of Montana, while tribes in Montana were neglected.

As is the case in many other parts of the nation, Montana is home to several American Indian tribes and reservations, which are often places of poverty that lack funding for education and healthcare.

Expectedly, Burns' favoring of Abramoff's tribal clients didn't go over well in Montana.

Tester, on the other hand, did very well in areas with large concentrations of American Indians, and American Indian voters surely helped Tester get the votes that he needed to overtake Burn's strong support in places like Flathead County, an extremely conservative county in northwestern Montana.

Tester also picked up votes in the major urban areas of Montana and did extremely well in places like Missoula with a large university and many young voters.

Republicans have often written off states like Montana, assuming they will always get the vote there because of the prevailing conservative mindset. What the Republicans forgot in this election is that people in Montana the Midwest have an independent streak, and they aren't beholden to any one party.

Montana and nearby Midwest states are libertarian at their centers. Citizens may favor conservative economic policies, but what they ultimately want is for the government to stay out of their lives. This does not mean they are inherently old-fashioned.

Montana was the state that elected the first female congress member — a woman who also studied at the UW, Jeannette Rankin. Montana now has a Democratic governor, one Democratic senator, one Democratic senator-elect and a state legislature controlled by Democrats as well. Indeed, the political structure and control there seems very similar to that in our "liberal" state of Washington.

The GOP can't continue to assume support from traditionally "red" states. With Republican politicians taking bribes and letting racial slurs fly, people who value honest politics and conservative values are going to turn elsewhere, as they have shown.

After everything you've heard about Burns you are probably wondering why it was even a close race. Well, there's one thing I didn't mention about Montana. In places like Flathead County and Lake County there are large populations of white supremacists. My cabin in Lake County is unfortunately just a few miles from strongholds of such people, and similar groups can be found in Idaho and the Dakotas.

The GOP, then, has two options for winning back former supporters: It can rely on the vote of extremist groups, or it can focus on the traditional values it proclaims to champion.

Given recent scandals within the party and a failing war with no end in sight, I'm betting that the central states will be getting bluer before they return to red.

Columnist Hunter Kincaid: hunterkincaid@thedaily.washington.edu