After a hard-fought campaign that began nearly eight months ago, President Barack Obama defeated Republican challenger Gov. Mitt Romney for the highest elected office in the country.

Obama was re-elected after receiving 303 electoral votes to Romney’s 206. Obama’s victory on Tuesday, Nov. 6, was closer than his 2008 win over Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain. The president received 50 percent of the popular vote compared to the 53 percent he received in the 2008 election.

Obama won the key swing states of Ohio, Virginia, Wisconsin and Nevada while Romney picked up the states of North Carolina and Indiana, two states Republicans lost in the 2008 election.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Romney called Obama to concede and a short time later appeared in front of his supporters in Boston.

“I wish all of them well, but particularly the president, the first lady and their daughters,” Romney said. “This is a time of great challenges for America, and I pray that the president will be successful in guiding our nation.”

Less than hour later, Obama strode to the podium in Chicago to speak to his supporters and the nation.

“In the coming weeks and months,” Obama said, “I am looking forward to reaching out and working with leaders of both parties to meet the challenges we can only solve together: reducing our deficit, reforming our tax code, fixing our immigration system, freeing ourselves from foreign oil …”

“Tonight in this election, you, the American people, reminded us that while our road has been hard, while our journey has been long, we have picked ourselves up, we have fought our way back,” the president continued. “We know in our hearts that for the United States of America, the best is yet to come.”

One state, Florida, has yet to be determined by the time the paper was sent to the press. Obama leads in Florida with 49.9 percent of the vote as compared to Romney’s 49.3 percent. Florida has 29 votes in the Electoral College.

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