Angus King will go to Washington as the second independent senator, joining Vermont's Bernie Sanders.

He entered the race when Republican Senator Olympia Snowe decided not to seek re-election, blaming Washington's partisan atmosphere as the reason why.

The race for Maine's coveted and pivotal Senate seat was called earlier than many predicted. Angus King is the winner.

With Van Halen playing in the background and chants of Angus, he addressed his supporters for the first time as their Senator-Elect. "Maine is leading by saying that we are tired of the political divisions that are keeping us from solving real problems. We're tired of politicians whose main purpose is to divide us instead of unite us."

King then spoke about the direction he hopes Maine is heading, "people don't care who gets the credit. They don't care who's winning and losing from year to year. What they want is a strong economy, a fair settlement to our debt crisis, strong defense, care for our veterans, schools that work, and they're tired of the false choice that always seems to confront them."

A big focus of the night from King and his supporters was the barrage of negative ads that flooded Maine airwaves, many of them paid for with out of state money. "The state of Maine, the voters of the state of Maine, have said to all those millions of dollars that were spent trying to persuade us that he was someone else, we know him, we like him, we trust him and we want him to be our senator."

King says those ads energized his campaign and he thinks they backfired on those responsible, but the message on election night, ending the partisan gridlock and bickering in Washington, and King says Maine can lead the way. "I am deeply humbled. I am firmly resolved. I am fervently thankful to all of you and to the people of Maine. God bless the state of Maine and the United States of America."

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