As the crowd that packed the West Foyer of the State Capitol on the morning after Election Day chanted “Four more years!” a smiling Gov. John Hickenlooper encouraged their cheers and then gave a hearty summation: “The voters of Colorado have spoken. What I want to express, first and foremost, is gratitude. We are incredibly grateful that we have earned a second term as Colorado’s governor.”

It wasn’t until the wee hours of Wednesday morning that returns from key counties cemented the Democrat’s nail-biter of a win over Republican challenger Bob Beauprez, who had maintained a slim lead in the count through most of the previous night.

In the unofficial vote count at press time, Hickenlooper and his running mate, Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia, won with 49.21 percent to the 46.07 percent garnered by Beauprez and the GOP lieutenant governor nominee, Douglas County Commissioner Jill Repella. Out of 2,006,626 votes cast in the race, the Democrats had 987,545, the Republican ticket had 924,484, and the remaining 94,597 votes went to third-party and unaffiliated candidates.

“Now is not the time to sit back and relax,” Hickenlooper told the crowd assembled in the Capitol, including Democratic legislators, members of his administration, campaign staff and volunteers. “It’s a moment and an opportunity to seize the bit and move forward, not to dwell on the wedge issues that too often divide us, but it’s an opportunity to come together as a state and seize this momentum that we have and make sure that every single community in Colorado is able to tap into the state’s economic vitality.”

In an election year that turned out to be extremely favorable for Republicans, Hickenlooper survived a relentless assault from Beauprez, a former congressman who lost a race for governor in 2006 by a wide margin. The GOP nominee — Beauprez didn’t enter the race until March but emerged in June from a crowded primary — faulted Hickenlooper as a weak, indecisive leader and piled on complaints about public safety as the campaign neared its end.

Hickenlooper, who served two terms as mayor of Denver, touted his administration’s response to floods and fires — more federally declared natural disasters in a few years than any state has ever endured, he reminded voters — and touted the state’s rebounding economy, including an unemployment rate that has been cut nearly in half during the governor’s term. Through it all, the quirky former brewpub owner stuck with his pledge to avoid running any negative ads, though outside groups kept the heat on Beauprez.

The gubernatorial candidates spoke to their respective supporters at around midnight the night before, both expressing confidence that they would prevail in the final count.

“It’s been a huge night for Republicans,” Beauprez told an enthusiastic ballroom at the GOP’s watch party at the Hyatt Regency Denver Tech Center, where winning candidate after winning candidate had earlier trooped across the stage to thunderous applause. “We’ve got a little more work to do, but we’re on the right side of even,” Beauprez added.

Hickenlooper, who had been maintaining an election night vigil at Union Station, appeared briefly to urge supporters to maintain confidence and get some sleep before departing with his dog at his side.

When Hickenlooper declared victory the next morning, he held a 1-point margin over Beauprez, though his roughly 22,000-vote lead would grow as the tally counted more ballots from Denver and Boulder, both liberal strongholds where Hickenlooper won by roughly 3-to-1.

The Beauprez camp didn’t concede until later that afternoon.

“We have been watching the results as votes continue to be counted and 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,” Beauprez wrote in an email to supporters. “I just spoke with Governor Hickenlooper. We had a good conversation and I congratulated him on a hard fought race.”

Democrats hailed Hickenlooper’s win as proof that Colorado remains a solidly purple state, despite stunning Republican gains elsewhere on the ballot, including U.S. Sen. Mark Udall’s defeat by U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner and U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman’s easy win over his Democratic challenger, former state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff. Legislative race results weren’t firm until the weekend, but Republicans also took over the state Senate for the first time in a decade by a single seat and eroded the Democrats’ majority in the state House with some unexpected wins.

“No one person, no one party has all the answers, and we look forward to collaborating with the Legislature — with the returning legislators but also with the new legislators,” Hickenlooper said on Wednesday morning. “We want to make sure that we are focused on hearing each other as clearly as possible,” he added, and then congratulated both the lawmakers who won reelection and those who were newly elected.

“We believe by making that effort and by working hard, to not just listen but to hear what each other is saying, we can create a new model for this country and how democracy can work,” he said.

Beauprez’s narrow loss was the rare disappointment for Republican gubernatorial candidates, who nearly swept the field across the country, taking over for Democrats in states including Illinois, Arkansas, Maryland and Massachusetts.

Colorado voters haven’t declined to reelect a governor since Republican John Love unseated Democrat Steve McNichols in 1962, although tight polls heading into the election this year showed that Hickenlooper was in danger of losing to Beauprez. (Democrat Dick Lamm ousted incumbent Gov. John Vanderhoof in 1974, but the former lieutenant governor had only recently ascended to the office after Love departed to join the Nixon Cabinet.)

See the Nov. 7 print edition for full photo coverage.

—Ernest@coloradostatesman.com