In a night that saw Republicans across the country win resounding victories, GOP candidate W. Mitt Romney handily defeated Democratic opponent Shannon P. O’Brien to win the hotly contested Massachusetts gubernatorial race.

Romney waged a come-from-behind campaign in the past month, steadily closing the gap in the polls until the two candidates were locked in a statistical dead heat on the eve of the election.

Last night he pushed farther ahead, winning 51 percent of the vote and riding to a comfortable seven-point victory over the current state treasurer.

“Tonight we sent a large and clear message. It is that it’s time for a new era in Massachusetts government,” Romney said in his victory speech. “The message is that people come first, not politicians.”

Romney’s triumph was only one victory in a Republican romp of the midterm elections.

As expected, the GOP held its majority in the House of Representatives, and Republican candidates also clinched control of the U.S. Senate with a key victoryies in Missouri and Georgia.

In the House, Republicans broke even—maintaining a small majority of about 20 seats. But in Massachusetts, all 10 House seats will remain Democratic.

State voters also polled conservatively on three ballot initiatives, overwhelmingly approving Question 2 to end bilingual education in the state for students who are learning English.

Voters rejected Question 3, a non-binding initiative on Clean Elections, by a three-to-one margin. The vote, which effectively urges state legislators to stop funding political campaigns with public money, will likely undo a law that the electorate widely approved in a referendum only four years ago.

And while voters defeated the Question 1 measure that would have repealed the state’s personal income tax, the margin —just six percent—was thinner than recent polls predicted.

Though they lost the governor’s race, Democrats held on to several state-level executive offices, as incumbents Secretary of State William F. Galvin and Auditor A. Joseph DeNucci won re-election. Democrat Timothy P. Cahill will fill the post of state treasurer, left vacant by O’Brien.

U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), often mentioned as a possible 2004 presidential candidate, easily won re-election over Libertarian candidate Michael E. Cloud.

The Gubernatorial Race

Romney’s victory extends the Republicans’ 12-year lease on the Corner Office in a state with almost twice as many registered Democrats as Republicans.

But in the midst of the mudslinging during the campaign’s final month, Romney reached out to independent voters—a bloc almost as large as the combined number of registered partisans.

In televised debates, negative attack ads and public appearances, Romney raised the specter of a Democratic monopoly on Beacon Hill. Democrats control more than four out of five seats in the legislature.

As the race grew closer in its final days, O’Brien was distracted by the strong third-party campaign mounted by Green Party candidate Jill E. Stein ’72-’73. But in the final vote tally, Stein performed well below predicted results—winning just 3 percent of the vote.

When he takes over from Acting Gov. Jane M. Swift (R) early next year, Romney will face a weakened state economy and a severe budget crisis, as well as rising housing costs and a struggling education system.

In his victory speech last night, he acknowledged the challenges he will confront in the next four years and asked for public support.

“I have told you that we face difficult times,” he said. “I am convinced that the only way we can solve our problems is to put aside the things that separate us.”

GOP Reclaims Senate

Defending 20 of the 34 seats up for re-election, Republicans fought an uphill battle to regain control of the Senate yesterday.

The GOP victory also defied recent trends, as the President’s party has not gained Senate seats in a midterm election since 1982.

The Democrats scored only one major Senate victory yesterday, when Arkansas voters unseated Republican incumbent Sen. Tim Hutchinson in favor of Democratic challenger Mark Pryor, the son of former Institute of Politics Director David H. Pryor.

As of early this morning, U.S. Rep. John Thune (R) led incumbent Sen. Tim Johnson (D) in a South Dakota race that was the scene of a political battle between President Bush—who recruited Thune to run for the post—and Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle (D-S.D.), who campaigned heavily for his colleague.

Republican Norm Coleman also held a narrow lead over former Vice President Walter Mondale in the Minnesota Senate race. Mondale was added to the Democratic ticket only a week ago, after incumbent Sen. Paul Wellstone (D) died in a plane crash.

Missouri’s Senate seat was won by Republican Jim Talent, who defeated incumbent Sen. Jean Carnahan (D) in a race that was too close to call going into the election.

Carnahan was appointed interim senator after her husband, then Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan, won his 2000 Senate race against John Ashcroft three weeks after dying in a plane crash.

Republicans also successfully defended Senate seats in several close races.

U.S. Rep. John E. Sununu defeated Gov. Jeanne Shaheen (D) in the New Hampshire race.

Sununu, who held a slight lead in the polls going into Election Day, overcame a write-in campaign on behalf of incumbent Sen. Bob Smith (R), whom Sununu defeated in a bitter primary race.

In North Carolina, Republican Elizabeth Dole, former secretary of transportation, beat Democrat Erskine Bowles, who served as chief of staff for former President Bill Clinton.

Dole, the wife of former GOP presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Bob Dole, held a slight lead in polls going into the election.

Though Democratic incumbent Sen. Mary Landrieu led in the Louisiana Senate race, this contest will most likely move into a run-off election.

In the Florida gubernatorial race, Gov. Jeb Bush (R) defeated darkhorse Democratic candidate Bill McBride. Bush, the brother of President Bush, is the first Republican governor to be re-elected in the state’s history.

—Material from the Associated Press was used in this article.

—Staff writer Christopher M. Loomis can be reached at cloomis@fas.harvard.edu.