Republicans are celebrating after a night full of wins on Tuesday, which included enough seats to take control of the United States Senate.

So far, Republicans have picked up seven seats in Tuesday’s election with another seat in Alaska headed for GOP control, according to the Associated Press vote count.

Virginia’s seat, which was not originally thought to be in play, was too close to call with incumbent Sen. Mark Warner leading his challenger Ed Gillespie by less than one percent. Louisiana’s seat is headed to a runoff and incumbent Sen. Mary Landrieu is expected to fall to her Republican challenger Rep. Bill Cassidy, giving Republicans another pickup.

“The Republicans did better than expected. I’d say much better,” said David Andersen, a political science professor at ISU. “It’s being called by some a ‘wave election,’ I don’t see that. It’s not huge gains, but it’s [that] they’re significant gains and they’re strong gains. They did better than expected and they should definitely sit down and be proud of themselves.

President Obama and Sen. Mitch McConnell both spoke following the midterm elections on Wednesday.

“Obviously, Republicans had a good night and they deserve credit for running good campaigns,” Obama told reporters at a press conference Wednesday afternoon at the White House. “It’s time for us to take care of business. There are things this county has to do that can’t wait another two years or four years.”

Obama said that Congress will likely pass legislation that he will veto, but he will also take unilateral action that Congress will not like, referring to an executive action that the White House is preparing to take on the subject of immigration reform.

McConnell (R-Kentucky) who is expected to be the Senate’s next majority leader, also held a press conference Wednesday to discuss the election and his plans for the next congressional session.

“I think what the voters were saying [election night] were a couple things,” McConnell said. “Number one, they’re obviously not satisfied with the direction of the [Obama] administration, but at the same time, I heard a lot of discussion about dysfunction in Washington. I think there are a lot of people who believe that just because you have divided government, that doesn’t mean you don’t accomplish anything.”

McConnell and Obama repeatedly spoke of working together in the upcoming session during their press conference, but Andersen does not see that happening.

“Mitch McConnell coming out and saying he thinks there is room for compromise and that he hopes the Democrats work with him is kind of ironic,” Andersen said. “For the past six years, he has refused to compromise and really work with Democrats. There is no expectation the Democrats are going to behave like adults. They are going to do the same childish filibustering that the Republicans have done for a very long time.”

Andersen also said Republicans may have won big, but they did not campaign on a policy vision for the country.

“I don’t think the Republican Party ran a strong campaign based upon doing anything,” Andersen said. “They basically ran against Obama, they want to repeal Obama’s policies, as few as he’s been able to enact. There’s no sense of what the party’s going to stand for. There’s just the vague notion of lower taxes, reduce spending and repeal Obamacare.”

While Andersen does not see a policy vision, McConnell did mention tax reform, which is something President Obama has said he would be willing to work on. McConnell also mentioned some international trade agreements during his press conference.

“When the American people choose divided government, it doesn’t mean they don’t want us to do anything, it means they want us to look for areas of agreement,” McConnell said.

Some worry about a Republican party that moves too far to the right. Andersen says Republicans will have to be careful, or it could hurt their chances in 2016.

‘The Republican Party is going to have to figure out a way to retrain the extreme elements because it will very tempting for them with control of Congress to do things they have they’ve done in the past, like impeach the President. That’s not going to fly with voters and the American public.”

In Iowa, Joni Ernst, who will be Iowa’s first woman in Congress, easily defeated Bruce Braley, her Democratic challenger, by 8.5 percent.

“Joni Ernst has people’s attention right now. She ran a really great campaign,” Andersen said. “You can look at her, start to finish, and you’re really not going to find a single mistake. She played her cards very well and ran a fantastic campaign.”

Republicans do not take over just yet. A lame duck session of Congress will convene before Christmas with Democrats in charge of the Senate for a while. The 114th session of Congress begins on January 3rd, 2015.