GRACIOUS: Mitt Romney calls for bipartisanship in his concession speech in Boston last night.
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SHE’S A FAN: A woman is hoisetd above the crowd in Times Square after the victory. (AFP/Getty Images)
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CHICAGO—President Obama scored a big victory in his reelection battle last night, repelling a tough challenge from Mitt Romney with a Rust Belt “firewall” and hanging on to much of his 2008 coalition despite the nations’ tough economic times.
A jubilant Obama greeted his supporters in Chicago early this morning.
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“While our journey has been long, we have picked ourselves up, we have crawled our way back, and we know in our hearts for the United States of America the best is yet to come,” Obama told a screaming crowd of about 10,000 supporters.
Obama said he congratulated Romney on a “hard-fought campaign,” and said he looked forward to sitting down with his Republican rival “to talk about where we can work together to move this country forward.”
After a bitter campaign, Romney was gracious in defeat.
“This is a time of great challenges for America and I pray that the president will be successful in guiding our nation,” Romney said as he conceded to his disappointed supporters in Boston.
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Romney appealed for bipartisanship, while avoiding mention of his campaign agenda of repealing ObamaCare and tackling the nation’s soaring debt.
“At a time like this, we can’t risk partisan bickering and political posturing,” Romney said, praising running mate Paul Ryan for his “commitment to principle” and thanking his wife, Ann. “Like so many of you, Paul and I have left everything on the field,” he said.
Obama defeated Romney in all but one of the battleground states, rolling up wins in Ohio, Virginia and Colorado — states that Obama had snatched from Republicans in his historic 2008 victory.
Out of the 11 most contested battleground states, Romney scored a single victory — in North Carolina — a state Obama won in 2008.
That put Obama’s expected electoral vote margin at a lopsided 303-206, with Florida still outstanding.
The count was well past the 270 electoral votes needed to win, with more states to be counted early today.
The win in Ohio — this year’s hardest-fought prize — sealed Obama’s victory, causing supporters at his campaign-watch party in Chicago to erupt into cheers.
In the Midwest industrial states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa — all strong union states where Obama and Vice President Joe Biden visited time and again over four years—a majority of state votes turned back Romney’s call for “real change” and opted to bank on Obama’s promise to “fight for you.”
Obama turned back a late play by Romney to try to snatch away Democratic-leaning Pennsylvania — including a last ditch visit there yesterday, keeping the state in his column. Pennsylvania has voted Democratic the last five presidential elections.
Romney made a play for Wisconsin, tapping Badger State Rep. Ryan as his running mate and investing time and money trying to make himself the first Republican to win there since 1984. But Obama carried it, leading by 5 points with 80 percent of the vote in.
Romney’s camp especially felt the sting of failure to win in Michigan — the state where he was born and where his dad, George, served as governor.
When cable networks made the Michigan call, there was near silence at Romney’s Boston headquarters, while cheers erupted in Chicago.
By keeping Iowa, Obama hung on to a state that launched his Democratic primary upset over Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2008. It was also where Obama symbolically held his last rally of the campaign.
Nor was Romney able to pry away New Hampshire — next door to Massachusetts, where he served a term as governor, and where he owns a vacation home. In fact, Romney also lost in Massachusetts last night.
In Colorado, another prize, Obama ran up votes from Latino voters, after backing a new policy to let the children of illegal aliens apply to stay in the United States.
Obama becomes the first Democrat to win re-election since World War II with unemployment as high as it is now — 7.9 percent. He avoided the fate of President George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter, who both succumbed to a bad economy.
Throughout the contest’s final weeks, Obama campaigned across the industrial Midwest, slamming Romney for opposing the auto bailout.
The president also assembled a sophisticated ground game to turn out votes, as he and Romney both assembled well lubricated financial machines — each raising about $1 billion as their allies threw in even more cash.
Obama’s campaign and affiliated outside groups hammered Romney for his time running Bain Capital, and the president called his rival a “pioneer” of outsourcing.
Romney hit back by pointing to the nation’s slow recovery and calling for change, saying the country can’t afford “four more years like the last four years.”
In battleground Florida, where both camps fought vigorously, Obama was on the verge of victory, leading 50-49, with 92 percent of precincts reporting.
Obama kept together his demographic coalition of minorities, women, and young voters, who responded to his nonstop invocations on the stump of immigration rights, women’s health and gaymarriage.
And he hung on to massive support from black voters. Exit polls showed 93 percent of African Americans backing Obama, nearly matching the 95 percent support black voters gave him in his historic 2008 election.
Obama prevailed for a second term despitepresiding over a painfully slow economic recovery and stubborn high joblessness, issues that were still a top concern of voters as they cast their ballots yesterday, , exit polls shows.
Additional reporting by Geoff Earle and Josh Margolin