Republican Rep. Todd Young bested former Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana in a race that shook the Democratic Establishment in the Hoosier State and Washington, D.C.

The race was called about 8:25 p.m. by Fox News. It’s a huge win for the GOP’s hopes to retain the Senate.

Bayh was considered a sure bet when he was put on the ballot in July, replacing a Democrat in an open-seat race for a crucial U.S. Senate seat. But questions about his residency sunk him.

Bayh has a $58,000, rarely used condo in Indianapolis but a multi-million-dollar home in the Georgetown area of D.C.

At around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Young was winning 53.5 percent of the vote, to Bayh’s 40.9 percent. Forty-four percent of precincts have reported. But Young broke out to an early lead that Bayh could not surpass, even as Democratic counties came in.

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Indiana was targeted by both parties when U.S. Sen. Dan Coats, a Republican, said he would retire.

That left the Republicans to defend a seat while trying to stave off the plots of U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, the Democratic minority leader. Reid suddenly had an extra seat to target in his quest to deprive the GOP of its Senate majority.

In July, Reid and U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer got the Democratic nominee, Baron Hill, to drop out of the race. Hill, beaten by Young in 2010 for a House seat, was doing poorly against Young, a two-term congressman from Bloomington.

Reid recruited Bayh, a former two-term governor and two-term senator who left this very seat in 2011 to work in the private sector in D.C. Young sagged immediately in the polls.

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But then stories of Bayh’s residency and his work for moneyed interests in D.C. and Manhattan began to pound the Democrat. Young poured it on, and Bayh struggled with the polls by late October.

The Young campaign grew more confident as October went on. The campaign chalked the race up to a Hoosier frustration with Washington.

“Hoosiers want a change from the last eight years of debt and despair in Washington,” said Jay Kenworthy, Young’s campaign spokesman. “In this election, Todd represented that change. He’s a conservative who is able to get things done in Washington, and he is excited to get to work bringing Hoosier voices to the United States Senate.”