President Barack Obama will hold a rare press conference with reporters this afternoon at which he is expected to address his party’s abysmal performance in Tuesday evening’s midterm elections.

Early Wednesday morning the White House announced that its daily press briefing with reporters would be pre-empted by a personal statement from the president.

Hours earlier Obama’s party lost control of the Senate, as was widely predicted, ripping power out of the president’s hands and shifting it to the Republican Party, which will run both chambers of Congress beginning in January.

The nationwide defeat limits Obama’s powers both legislatively and figuratively, and the president’s only recourse in his final two years will be to veto Republican-passed legislation and issue the kinds of executive orders that Republicans said they’d prevent if elected, including amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants.

Today it appeared he will press ahead with the highly-controversial immigration reforms.

President Barack Obama is expected to announce at a White House press conference today that he will keeping pushing his policies aggressively despite his party's loses last night that Republicans say was a referendum on the president's failed agenda

Victory: Mitch McConnell thanks voters in Kentucky for returning him to the Senate - where he will almost certainly lead a Republican majority. Standing with his wife Elaine Chao on Tuesday night, he used his speech to put his party firmly in the driving seat telling Democrats their government was 'too busy focusing on things it should not be doing at all'

According to ABC News, Obama will move forward on immigration reform despite the successful referendum on both his party and his policies last night.

'White House officials are saying that you can expect the president to set an aggressive, and defiant tone tomorrow. You're not going to see any mea culpas, no big firings, no change in direction,' ABC's Jon Karl said Tuesday evening.

Republicans knocked off four sitting Democratic Senators and picked up a total of seven seats currently held by the opposition party, leading to a 53 seat majority as of Wednesday morning. One state, Virginia, still hangs in the balance as less than one percent of the total number of votes separates Republican challenger Ed Gillespie and incumbent Democrat Mark Warner.

Another race, that one in Louisiana, will not be decided until Dec. 6 when Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu will face off against Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy. Neither were able to surpass the state’s required 50 percent mark in its jungle general election last night that allowed six other candidates to appear on the ballot in addition to the frontrunners.

If Republicans pick up Louisiana as polls suggest, their majority in the Senate will expand to 54 seats.

Just minutes after the Democratic Party’s humiliating trashing last night at the ballot box, President Obama’s allies on the left began blaming him for Democratic candidates’ devastating defeats.

WRONG WAY: North Carolina Democratic Senator Kay Hagan's thumb pointed down by Tuesday night's end, as she lost her seat to Republican Thom Tillis

SEEING RED: The Empire State Building is illuminated in red representing the victory of the Republican party candidates in the midterm US Senate elections on Tuesday night

Democrat Senator Jeanne Shaheen celebrates her re-election victory over challenger Scott Brown at her midterm election night rally in Manchester, New Hampshire

‘Democrats have lost the Senate, and what happens next is going to depend a lot on what President Obama is willing to stand up and fight for,’ Becky Bond, political director of progressive activism organization CREDO, said in a statement on Tuesday night.

‘If the President had fought for the priorities of his base, and if the Democratic party had invested in voter mobilization on the ground instead of vaporizing hundreds of millions in negative television advertising, Democrats would not have lost the Senate,’ Bond, who is also the president of CREDO’s SuperPac, said.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee didn’t even wait for the polls to close and Republicans to officially be crowned king of the Hill before it began pointing the finger of blame at Obama.

‘The White House failed to define any agenda for voters in 2014,’ the left-wing organization said in a statement early Tuesday afternoon, in which it later promised to ‘remold the Democratic Party in [Massachusetts Sen.] Elizabeth Warren's image.’

After Democrats had conceded in enough states for Republicans to claim a majority in the Senate, PCCC again chastised the president and Senate Democrats for failing to coalesce around a ‘defined economic agenda’ during the election cycle.

AT THE STATEHOUSE The GOP defended 22 governor's seats, Democrats 14. Six Republican governors who swept into office in 2010, some with tea party support, faced fierce challenges in the campaign. GOP Gov. Sam Brownback survived by a slim margin in solidly Republican Kansas. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker defeated Democratic challenger Mary Burke. That cleared a huge hurdle for Walker as he prepares for a possible run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. Democrats and labor allies had salivated at the prospect of defeating the governor who effectively ended collective bargaining for most public workers in the state after his election in 2010. In Florida, GOP Gov. Rick Scott also held onto office despite a strong challenge from Democrat Charlie Crist. But in Pennsylvania, GOP Gov. Tom Corbett fell to Democrat Tom Wolf. Advertisement

IN THE PEOPLE'S HOUSE Republicans won a commanding majority, pushing their dominance to near-historic levels. They defeated some of the last white Democrats in the South and penetrated Democratic strongholds nationwide. The GOP, going into the election with a 234-201 majority, was on track to match or surpass the seats it held during Democratic President Harry Truman's administration more than 60 years ago. They gained 14 seats and counting; Democrats just one. Republicans claimed three Democratic seats in New York, upending six-term Rep. Tim Bishop on Long Island and Dan Maffei in the Syracuse area while winning an open seat upstate. The results were a blow to Rep. Steve Israel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Democratic National Committee head Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Advertisement

‘When elections are about nothing, Democrats lose,’ PCCC co-founder Stephanie Taylor said.

‘Looking forward,’ Taylor said, ‘the Democratic Party must be focused on big ideas and popular economic issues….This is the only route back to the majority and a resurgence for Democrats.’

Reading the writing on the wall, the White House began putting the onus for Democratic loses on the candidates themselves weeks ago.

While the president’s policies are on the ballot, so too are individual candidates, Obama flack Josh Earnest repeatedly told reporters while acknowledging that the president would likely get more than his fair share of the blame for Democrat loses.

Going into election week the White House spokesman began spinning for his boss even harder, telling reporters that ‘ultimately, it’s the quality of these candidates that is going to be the driver of their success in this election’ and ‘ultimately it’s these…candidates whose record is on the ballot.’

The President is merely ‘interested in being supportive of them,’ he explained after a reporter asked if the outcomes of several competitive governor’s races would be a ‘reflection on the President’s ability to mobilize his core supporters and ultimately hurt his ability over the next two years to command the bully pulpit.’

With Democratic Senate candidates mostly avoiding him, Obama turned his attention to his party’s gubernatorial candidates. But Obama couldn’t save them either, and several Democrats vying for the governor’s mansion that had the backing of the president, including Maryland Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and Maine Congressman Mike Michaud, lost their races on Tuesday evening in stunning upsets by their Republican challengers.

Joni Ernst makes a speech in West Des Moines, Iowa on Tuesday, after her win handed Republicans the advantage in the midterm elections

Kansas Republican Senator Pat Roberts speaks about his plans after being re-elected in the U.S. midterm election in Topeka on Tuesday. Roberts retained his seat in a crucial race for his party as it clinched control of the U.S. Senate

Earnest was again put on the defensive on Tuesday when reporters confronted him about the president’s role in the election and the fact that many of the Republican Senate candidates surging past their Democratic opponents were running anti-Obama platforms.

‘I don’t think it’s a particularly controversial notion to cite that most voters I think are deciding who to vote for based on the name that’s on the ballot, not the name that’s not,’ Earnest griped.

He later brought in reinforcements, citing Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Executive Director Guy Cecil, who ‘has recently said that the President did every single thing that Senate Democrats have asked him to do to support their campaigns,’ Earnest asserted.

Among those actions, Earnest has said, was raising substantial amounts of money for Democratic Party candidates through fundraisers for the national party committees and appearing at rallies for some of them. Candidates also benefited a great deal from the ground work his presidential campaign did in 2012, Earnest pointed out.

Furthermore, the president recorded robo calls for a number of candidates, the White House spokesman confirmed, though he wouldn’t say how many or for whom or where they were issued.

The media first learned of the pre-recorded phone calls issued to voters after North Carolina Republican Senate candidate Thom Tillis announced them on his Facebook page. Tillis used the calls as evidence that his opponent, Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan, was more closely aligned with Obama than she let on to voters.

You're not going to see any mea culpas, no big firings, no change in direction ABC News's John Karl on White House strategy after defeat

After the Obama-Hagan calls were brought to light, local reporters discovered that the president and other White House officials had recorded messages for Maryland Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, who was in a tight gubernatorial race against Republican Larry Hogan.

Earnest said on Tuesday that it wasn’t up to the White House to determine individual candidate’s campaign strategies, and if they wanted to keep secret robocalls issued by the president on their behalf, that’s their prerogative.

Speaking directly about Hagan, Earnest said, ‘it’s her name that’s on the ballot, and it’s she and her team who should decide how best to use the President and his popularity in North Carolina to benefit her campaign.’

He later said: ‘Candidates whose names are on the ballot are the ones who are driving the strategy for the election. That is I think a pretty common-sense notion. And failure to do that I think could lead to some rather strange outcomes. ‘

Republicans were quick to claim a mandate on Tuesday night to eviscerate Obama’s policies.

‘Make no mistake: Tonight is a repudiation of President Obama's policies,’ Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said last night at a party celebrating fellow Kentucky Senator and likely incoming Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement released just after Midnight that the historic election was a ‘rejection of President Obama's failed polices and [current Majority Leader] Harry Reid's dysfunctional Senate.’

Throwing the president’s claim earlier this month that his policies were ‘on the ballot’ back in his face, Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Thune said in a statement ‘Americans tonight rejected those policies.’

Victory: Mitch McConnell thanks voters in Kentucky for returning him to the Senate - where he will almost certainly lead a Republican majority. Standing with his wife Elaine Chao on Tuesday night, he used his speech to put his party firmly in the driving seat telling Democrats their government was 'too busy focusing on things it should not be doing at all'

Democrat Mary Landrieu celebrates with supporters on Tuesday night in Louisiana but with the result undecided she faces an unfavorable December 6 runoff

‘The Senate Republican majority is ready to get to work for the American people. Republicans stand ready to pass solutions to help create jobs, grow the economy, and strengthen the middle class.

‘We invite Senate Democrats and the President to join us in these efforts to address the crucial issues facing our country,’ he said.

McConnell said in his victory speech on Tuesday night that while he will strive to work with the president and his Democratic colleagues in the Senate, he’s not holding his breath that they’ll be as eager to pass GOP legislation as he is.

‘I don’t expect the president to wake up tomorrow morning and view the world any differently,’ McConnell said. ‘He knows I won’t either.’

One key issues Obama is unlikely to change course on in reaction to Republican gains is his plans to issue green cards to up to 11 million illegal immigrants living in American illegally.

The president was slated to give the order earlier this fall but held off amid concern that the move would result in a backlash at the polls for Democrats.

With nothing else to lose, save for the Louisiana Senate that Republican are likely to capture anyway, there is now nothing stopping Obama from making an announcement before the end of the year.

The president’s specific plans are still unclear but at the very least he will issue green cards to more than a million illegals currently living in the U.S., allowing them to stay in the country indefinitely – or until his second and final presidential term ends in two years.

More bad news for the Democrats: Republican gubernatorial candidates run away with huge election wins in blue states

By David Martosko, US Political Editor for MailOnline

Republicans danced Tuesday night to the tune of a new U.S. Senate majority, but governor's mansions will also be redder in 2015 than they were this year.

Stunning upsets in Illinois, Maryland and Massachusetts – three of America's more liberal-dominated states – left political consultants and commentators shaking their heads.

The strong GOP showing – they won at least six races in states with Democratic governors – will be seen as a repudiation of Barack Obama, who said in October that while he wouldn't be on the ballot, his policies would be.

It also will cast doubt on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's ability to galvanize Democratic voters in states she would need to win in order to claim the presidency in 2016.

Clinton stumped for Maryland Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown in October, carefully controlling events by limiting reporters' access while playing to half-empty auditoriums.

Brown lost big to political newcomer Larry Hogan, known in real estate but not in Annapolis, in a 6-point upset that also brought first lady Michelle Obama out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to buck up Brown as his campaign flagged.

THE AGONY OF DEFEAT: Democratic gubernatorial candidate Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown (left) lost a bruising race despite help from the Obamas and the Clintons

DIDN'T HELP: Anthony Brown (right) was already Maryland's lieutenant governor, and Michelle Obama wanted him to get the top job

Maryland's incumbent governor, Martin O'Malley, is also a potential 2016 presidential candidate. His stock fell Tuesday, too, as Democrats saw him surrendering the keys to the governor's mansion to a Republican.

That sleeper race was one of Tuesday's biggest shockers. Brown led in nine of the last 10 opinion polls covering the race, slipping behind just days before the election – and then only in a poll commissioned by Hogan's campaign.

In June, Hogan faced a seemingly insurmountable 18-point deficit.

Five months later, he thanked New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, the chairman of the Republican Governors Association, for helping him seal the deal.

Christie, he told wildly cheering supporters, 'was so excited that we had the biggest upset in the entire country, that he wanted to fly his helicopter down here to be with us tonight.'

He framed his victory as the 'largest mandate for change in Maryland in 63 years.'

'Tonight countless Democrats crossed over,' he said, 'and affirmed the wisdom of John F. Kennedy who said, "Sometimes party loyalty demands too much".'

THE THRILL OF VICTORY: Maryland Gov.-elect Larry Hogan, a Republican, acknowledges supporters after winning the state's gubernatorial race

In Massachusetts, state Attorney General Martha Coakley crashed and burned at the hands of former state cabinet member Charlie Baker, who won in every county except those in the western part of the state plus Boston and the elite playground islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard.

Coakley earned the sobriquet 'Martha Croakley' after losing a special election in 2010 that was called to fill a U.S. Senate seat after the death of Ted Kennedy. That seat had been in Democrats' hands for ages, but then-unknown Republican Scott Brown trounced her.

Brown appeared to have failed in a bid to return to the Senate in a New Hampshire race on Tuesday, in a race he lost by less than one-half of one percent. He has not, however, conceded the race.

That's one thing he and Coakley have in common: On Tuesday night, trailing by one and one-half percentage points, she sent her supporters home and said she wouldn't admit she had lost.

Baker trailed all summer in the polls but held a consistent if narrow lead through October.