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DENVER -- John Hickenlooper has secured a second term as Colorado governor as vote totals overnight gave him a 22,000-plus lead over Republican challenger Bob Beauprez, FOX31 Denver can report.

Hickenlooper's victory, making him the rare Democratic incumbent to survive a national Republican wave, began to take shape around 2:30 a.m., after late returns from Denver and Jefferson County pushed him to a lead of roughly 1,000 votes, a margin that would have been difficult for Beauprez to overcome because of where the remaining ballots were coming from.

With 93 percent of the vote counted and 200 precincts still outstanding -- a lot of them in reliably Democratic Denver and Boulder counties -- Hickenlooper had 902,991 votes (48.3 percent) to 880,727 for Beauprez (47.1 percent), a 1.2 percent lead.

Late Wednesday afternoon, Beauprez sent an email to supporters saying, "unfortunately at this point, even with a handful of counties still reporting, there just aren't enough options to get us across the finish line."

"I just spoke with Governor Hickenlooper. We had a good conversation and I congratulated him on a hard fought race," Beauprez said.

Denver County officials stopped counting about 7 a.m. to take a break after a 28-hour day and will resume about midday Wednesday. Vote counting is continuing in Boulder County, with 23,000-plus votes still to be counted. Officials there expect to be counting until about midday.

In both counties, Hickenlooper has been winning about three of every four votes. Adams County will resume counting a few thousand ballots about 9 a.m., but how the voting trends are going and where the outstanding votes remain, it's not enough for Beauprez to make up and overtake the governor.

Hickenlooper is expected to speak at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at the state Capitorl.