Meet the 8 New Members of the Senate

While Republicans lost control of the House of Representatives in Tuesday’s elections, the GOP likely strengthened its Senate majority by three seats, to gain a 54-seat majority.

One race, in Mississippi, won’t be decided until Nov. 27, as incumbent Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith, appointed in April, is set to face Democrat Mike Espy in a runoff because no candidate won a majority Tuesday.

Here’s what you should know about the Senate’s incoming freshman class of seven Republicans and one Democrat:

1. Indiana’s Mike Braun

Indiana’s newest U.S. senator, Republican Mike Braun, ran as an ardent supporter of President Donald Trump’s agenda and criticized incumbent Democrat Joe Donnelly for not supporting the president.

Braun particularly seized on Donnelly’s vote against the Senate confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a vote that many say tipped the scales of a previously tight race heavily in Braun’s favor.

As a former state representative and Indiana businessman with an estimatednet worth of nearly $66 million, Braun won in a competitive Republican primary against two members of Congress on a message of being a Washington outsider, investing millions of his own money into the race.

Braun, 64, carried his anti-Washington message into the general election. He went after Donnelly relentlessly on taxes, his opposition to Trump’s efforts on health care, and the senator’s “no” vote on Kavanaugh.

After Kavanaugh’s confirmation, Donnelly tried to retain support from conservative voters in the red state, releasing an ad in mid-October backing Trump’s proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexican border and supporting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

2. Tennessee’s Marsha Blackburn

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