LANSING — Democrat Gretchen Whitmer defeated Republican Bill Schuette in the Michigan governor's race Tuesday as voters turned out in large numbers to elect a new chief executive to lead the state for the next four years.

The Associated Press called the race for Whitmer at about 10 p.m. With 91 percent of the state's polls reporting, she led with 53.1 percent of the vote, compared to 44 percent for Schuette.

“I am incredibly humbled that you put your trust in me to be your next governor,” Whitmer told supporters at Motor City Casino. “This victory belongs to you.”

Whitmer, the former Senate minority leader from East Lansing, said it's time for the state to unite and for elected state officials of different parties to work across the aisle to solve the state's many problems in areas such as health care and education.

She will have to work with a Legislature in which both chambers remain controlled by Republicans after Tuesday's vote.

"The people have spoken and we chose hope and inclusion," she said. "We chose respect and collaboration and we chose bridges over walls."

Whitmer consistently led Schuette, the attorney general and veteran politician from Midland, in opinion polls of voters in one of the most expensive and hard-fought campaigns in Michigan history.

Whitmer and Schuette were fighting to succeed Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, who is completing his second term and can't seek a third because of constitutional term limits.

Whitmer will be sworn in Jan. 1 as Michigan's 49th and second female governor.

Schuette, who called Whitmer to congratulate her before publicly conceding at about 10:30 p.m at the Lansing Center, told reporters it was "a difficult climate" in which to run for governor as a Republican, but the experience was "an incredible honor."

"I had a terrific victory speech in my other pocket, but I'll save that for another occasion," he said.

Whitmer said she thanked Schuette "for his many years of service."

Whitmer's campaign was buoyed by voters — especially women — angered and energized by the results of the 2016 election and their dislike of President Donald Trump. She touted her ability to work across party lines and pledged to protect and build on Michigan's expansion of Medicaid under the federal Affordable Care Act, which she worked with Snyder to get through the GOP-controlled Legislature. Whitmer also pledged to introduce universal pre-kindergarten for 4-year-olds while boosting funding for K-12 schools and halting the expansion of for-profit charter schools. And — most of all — she pledged to "fix the damn roads."

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Schuette ran on promises of personal income tax cuts and more job growth and portrayed the choice as one between continued economic recovery or a return to what he called the "lost decade" of the 2000s under former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat. Schuette's endorsement from Trump helped him win a vigorous four-way GOP primary to secure the nomination. He invoked the president's name much less frequently in the general election campaign, but took a page from Trump's national playbook late in the campaign as he continued to trail in the polls.

Just as Trump stoked fears about illegal immigrants and a caravan of refugees headed slowly for the U.S.-Mexico border, Schuette increasingly labeled Whitmer as an extreme liberal who would hike taxes, abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement and favor open borders and sanctuary cities for undocumented immigrants. Whitmer has proposed unspecified higher taxes and fees as one option to pay for road improvements but otherwise denied Schuette's charges.

"Fear of Gretchen Whitmer ... (is) really driving voters," Schuette said at a Monday rally at Michigan Republican Party headquarters in Lansing. "That fear of another lost decade is causing (our campaign) to surge."

Whitmer was upbeat as she arrived that night for a final rally with supporters and Democratic candidates at a Lansing bar-restaurant.

"I'm ready," she told reporters. "Who the governor is impacts your life from the moment you wake up and turn on the tap to brush your teeth, to the roads you drive, to the schools our kids attend."

Snyder, who supported Lt. Gov. Brian Calley in the Republican primary, declined to endorse either candidate in the general election. He did not attend the Republican election results watch party Tuesday night at the Lansing Center.

Trump didn't visit Michigan during the general election campaign, as he had during the primary, though Schuette said he invited him.

Asked if Snyder and Trump could have done more to help his campaign, Schuette acknowledged the support of the president but didn't mention Snyder's name.

“I appreciated very much the support of the president, the vice president," he said. "The White House was very helpful, a lot of good people. We’ve met so many good people along the way. I’m grateful for that. These are memories and friendships we have forged that will last a lifetime.”

Bethany Wheeler, 39, a married mother of five who works for the federal government and lives in Warren, said Tuesday she voted for Schuette for a number of reasons — including his work to fight school bullying through the OK2Say confidential tip line.

Wheeler, who described her politics as civil libertarian, said she supports Trump because she likes what he has accomplished and wanted to cast her ballot in a way that would allow him to continue to get results.

Another Warren mom, 55-year-old homemaker Lisa Williams, said Tuesday that Whitmer got her vote because she wants the roads fixed and believes Whitmer is more likely to accomplish that than Schuette.

Williams isn't excited about paying higher taxes to fix the roads, but if she needs to pay a little more to get the job done, that's OK, she said.

Williams said her ballot was also influenced by Trump and she believes many of the women she knows voted against the Republicans on Tuesday to send a message to Trump.

"I don't like the meanness," said Williams, who is married with one son. "I don't like the name-calling. I don't think that's how we should be talking to each other."

As Michigan Democrats gathered in Detroit Tuesday night to await election results, Aidan Johnson-Hill and his twin brother Brady might have had the best seats in the house.

Tucked away in the last row of the balcony, the 16-year-olds had a great view of the party unfolding two levels below them and, at the same time, a close-up view of a television tuned to CNN broadcasting the national results as they rolled in.

"I'm pretty optimistic," Brady said about 8:45 p.m. before any real results were in. "It's looking like a lot more younger people were voting and they normally vote more liberal."

Aidan was equally optimistic.

"I think a lot of young people are voting and that's good for Democrats," he said

Many of those gathered wore shirts touting various candidates and a majority had on "I Voted" stickers. There was cautious optimism before polls closed that Democrats were attending a victory party.

"We're going to have fun tonight," said Michael Wills, 27, of Lansing. "We're going to sweep all the top spots. It's time for change and I think that's what we're going to see."

At the Lansing Center, where Michigan Republicans gathered, Larry Ward, 57, of Williamston, a Trump supporter, was disappointed but philosophical about Schuette's defeat.

“We’re going to lose some races, but Republicans really showed well," he said. "This is just the State of Michigan. Every eight years we change parties.”

As Ward alluded, Schuette faced another obstacle Tuesday, in addition to fired-up Democrats — Michigan history.

The state has a decades-long tradition of saying farewell to one governor by electing the next one from the opposing party.

The last time Republican governors were elected back to back was 1946, when Gov. Kim Sigler succeeded Gov. Harry Kelly. (It's true that Republican Gov. William Milliken succeeded Republican Gov. George Romney in 1969, but that was a result of Romney's resignation and Milliken's elevation from lieutenant governor, not an election.)

The last time Michigan elected back-to-back Democratic governors was 1960, when Gov. John Swainson succeeded Gov. G. Mennen "Soapy" Williams.

Whitmer significantly outraised Schuette, whose campaign was marked by unexpected loans, canceled TV ad buys, and unpaid bills in its closing weeks.

Based on her committee's most recent campaign finance report, filed in late October, Whitmer had raised close to $11.2 million in private funds, plus about $929,000 in public funds, bringing her total campaign war chest to about $12.1 million.

Schuette had raised about $8.6 million from donors, plus about $400,000 in public funds, for a $9-million campaign total.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4. Eric Lacy of michigan.com contributed.