Obama's numbers held firm across most of the electoral map. Four more for 44

President Barack Obama has won reelection, defeating Republican Mitt Romney by a wide margin in the Electoral College after a savagely negative and historically expensive race fought against a backdrop of near-8 percent unemployment.

Obama is on track to secure a second term by a narrower margin than he won his first national election in 2008. But his numbers held firm across most of the electoral map: Of the states Obama won four years ago, only North Carolina and Indiana switched to Romney.


( PHOTOS: Concessions and celebrations)

So far, The Associated Press has called New Hampshire, Ohio, Colorado, Iowa, Wisconsin, Nevada and Virginia for the president, pushing him well above the 270-electoral vote threshold for victory. The only state still uncalled is Florida, where Obama led by about 46,000 votes with 100 percent of the precincts reporting.

In the national popular vote, Obama’s margin of victory looks narrower. At 5:45 a.m., he led Romney by a little more than 2 million votes out of more than 106 million cast. In 2008, Obama beat John McCain by about 10 million votes.

But speaking to supporters in Chicago, Obama cast his victory as a unifying moment for the country after a long and bitter campaign.

“Despite all our differences, most of us share certain hopes for America’s future. We want our kids to grow up in a country where they have access to the best schools, the best teachers,” Obama said. “We want our children to live in an America that isn’t burdened by debt, that isn’t weakened by inequality, that isn’t threatened by the disruptive power of a warming planet. We want to pass on a country that’s safe and respected and admired around the world.”

( Also on POLITICO: 12 takeaways from Obama’s win)

Said Obama: “Whether I have earned your vote or not, I have listened to you, I have learned from you and you have made me a better president.”

The president also nodded to his opponent, Romney, praising both the Republican and his late parents’ record of public service. “I look forward to sitting down with Gov. Romney to talk about where we can work together to move this country forward,” Obama said.

Across the country in Boston, Romney and his advisers abandoned their once-confident predictions of victory — earlier this week, some talked of winning more than 300 electoral votes — and conceded defeat just before 1 a.m.

Romney phoned Obama to congratulate him on winning and told an audience of disappointed Republicans: “I pray that the president will be successful in guiding our nation.”

“I believe in America. I believe in the people of America. And I ran for office because I’m concerned about America. This election is over, but our principles endure,” Romney said. “I so wish that I had been able to fulfill your hopes to lead the country in a different direction, but the nation chose another leader.”

Romney aides had talked up the possibility in recent days of a runaway national victory, declaring that a late jolt of momentum had suddenly put big, Democratic-leaning states within reach. But Democrats easily turned back late efforts by Romney and outside-spending groups to flip Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Michigan over to Romney.

Instead, Romney made only modest progress over Arizona Sen. John McCain’s 2008 electoral map and actually lost ground with key demographic groups that helped decide the race.

From the outset of his campaign in June 2011, Romney staked his White House bid on the assumption that Americans were utterly fed up with a stagnant economy and willing to replace Obama with a credible alternative.

Yet exit polls Tuesday suggested that Romney’s theory may have been flawed from the start or at least that the Republican failed to prosecute his case effectively. Sixty percent of voters said that the economy was their No. 1 concern, but more blamed former President George W. Bush for the state of the nation than blamed Obama.

And Democrats relentlessly attacked Romney as an instrument of powerful financial interests and a rich man out of touch with the concerns of ordinary Americans. In exit polling, a full 52 percent of respondents said Romney’s policies would favor the rich, while 36 percent said they would favor the middle class.

For Obama, a 43-percent plurality said his policies lean toward the middle class and just 10 percent said they favor the rich.

The biggest story of all may be turnout: Voters appear to have turned out at explosive rates in the most hotly-contested states, with large numbers of black and Hispanic voters heading for the polls.

In effect, Obama may have managed to win reelection by confounding Republican expectations that the electorate would be whiter and more conservative than the 2008 voting population. Despite GOP skepticism, Obama’s 2008 coalition may have remained intact – and even grown.

Exit polls showed the racial composition of the electorate was similar to 2008, and in fact a bit more diverse. African-Americans, Latinos and Asians made up a combined 26 percent of those who cast ballots, exits showed, compared to 24 percent in 2008.

The age breakdown was similar, too: Voters aged 18-29 made up 19 percent of the electorate, up from 18 percent in 2008, and conservative-leaning voters older than 65 were 17 percent of the electorate, up from 16 percent four years ago.

The gender gap was even more pronounced this year than in Obama’s first presidential election. This year, he won women — who were 54 percent of the voters — by 12 points and lost men by 7 points. In 2008, Obama won women, then 53 percent of the electorate, by 13 points and won men as well by a single percentage point.

Republicans were headed for disappointment down the ballot as well, losing a string of key Senate races in the Midwest and on the East Coast that left them with no conceivable route to taking control of the chamber.

The GOP majority in the House is safe, ensuring at least two years more of divided government. House Speaker John Boehner told POLITICO earlier this week that he does not believe Obama’s reelection should require Republicans to bend in their governing priorities.

The failure to take the Senate is almost as bitter a pill for Washington Republicans as Romney’s loss in the presidential race. Democrats entered the 2012 cycle with far more seats to defend than Republicans and only a slim, three-seat majority to work with.

But Republicans caught a tough break when Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe retired, allowing independent former Gov. Angus King to succeed her. King has not said which party he will caucus with in the Senate, but he’s expected to join the Democrats.

What’s more, Democrat Elizabeth Warren knocked off Republican Sen. Scott Brown in Massachusetts in one of the most expensive races in the country, and Democratic Indiana Rep. Joe Donnelly scored an upset win over state Treasurer Richard Mourdock in the race for outgoing Sen. Dick Lugar’s seat.

Republicans have taken away one Democratic-held seat in Nebraska, and may yet gain in North Dakota and Montana.

Once-vulnerable Democratic incumbents in Ohio, Florida, Missouri and Pennsylvania won reelection fairly comfortably. The party held onto open seats in Virginia, Hawaii and New Mexico.

And in Wisconsin, Rep. Tammy Baldwin defeated former Gov. Tommy Thompson to keep the state’s Senate seat in Democratic hands. Baldwin is the first openly gay person ever elected to the U.S. Senate.