Virginia, which appeared to become a solidly Democratic state a few election cycles ago but has recently been trending back toward Republicans, was viewed by some on the right as a possible long-shot opportunity to flip a U.S. Senate from blue to red.

Unfortunately, incumbent Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) has now won re-election after fending off a tough challenge from his Republican opponent, former refugee and U.S. Navy veteran Hung Cao, according to Breitbart.

The fury of President-elect Donald Trump and others at that loss after coming tantalizingly close to pulling off an upset in Virginia is tempered by the fact that the GOP was able to flip the entire Senate via wins in other states and take back majority control from the Democrats.

Virginia Senate seats stays in Democratic hands

When ballots first began to be counted after the polls closed in Virginia Tuesday night, Republican challenger Cao pulled out to an initial lead over Sen. Kaine and hopes were raised that a surprise upset could be in store, only for that apparent lead to evaporate and be reversed as the hours passed and more votes were counted.

Now, according to NBC News, and with approximately 96% of all ballots counted, Kaine is the projected winner with a 54.1% to 45.9% victory. Currently, Kaine has around 2.3 million votes compared to 1.95 million for Cao, a difference of about 300,000 that is far more than the estimated 195,000 ballots that remain to be counted.

This will be Kaine's third term in the Senate, per USA Today, after he was elected in 2013 to his first term, during which he also unsuccessfully ran as the vice presidential candidate on failed 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's ticket.

Kaine began his career in politics in 1994 when he was elected to serve on the Richmond City Council, after which he served as Richmond's mayor and then moved on to serve as Virginia's governor from 2006 to 2010.

Cao, who fled communist Vietnam as a child with his family, came to the U.S. as a refugee in 1975 but later became a citizen, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, and served in the U.S. Navy from 1989 until 2021. Per Breitbart, he made an unsuccessful run for a congressional seat in Virginia in 2022 before launching the close but unsuccessful campaign to unseat Kaine from the Senate.

Republicans won the Senate majority by flipping other states

To be sure, the Republican loss in Virginia will be a bitter pill to swallow for some, given how close the GOP came to an unexpected upset of a Senate seat that most election analysts and experts never even considered to be in play.

Yet, a surprise victory in Virginia would have only bolstered the new incoming Republican majority -- which will reverse the current 51-49 Democratic advantage in the Senate -- that was secured with GOP wins over Democrats in other states, according to Senate election results compiled by CBS News.

Republicans will now control the Senate in the next term with at least 52 seats after flipping the previously Democrat-held seats in West Virginia, Ohio, and Montana. That majority could possibly grow larger as a handful of close races remain uncalled, including in Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Arizona.

Unfortunately, the GOP fell short of picking off tightly contested seats in Michigan and Wisconsin.

Senate majority will be crucial to help Trump

This new GOP Senate majority, regardless of its eventual size, will undoubtedly prove critical in helping President-elect Trump by confirming his Cabinet and judicial appointments as well as passing his policy agenda via legislation instead of just executive orders.

Who will lead that majority -- current Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced earlier this year that he would step aside -- and whether Republicans hang on to their slim majority control of the House are equally important questions that remain unanswered at this time.