(The Center Square) – U.S. Sen. Mike Braun won Indiana’s gubernatorial race Tuesday, retaining the seat for the Republican Party by defeating former state Superintendent of Education Jennifer McCormick.

The Associated Press called the race for Braun at 7:01 p.m. ET, immediately after polls closed in counties in the state’s central time zone, northwest and southwest corners. A McCormick spokesman at the time said the news service’s projections seemed too early. However, McCormick, a former Republican who switched to the Democratic Party three years ago, eventually conceded defeat by addressing her supporters just before 10 p.m. ET.

With 72% of the votes counted as of 10:06 p.m. ET, Braun had received more than 1.2 million votes, or 55% of the unofficial count. McCormick won more than 923,500 votes, or 40.4 percent, and Libertarian Donald Rainwater received more than 106,000 votes, or 4.7 percent.

Braun will succeed current Governor Eric Holcomb, a two-term incumbent not up for re-election. With this victory, Republicans have won every gubernatorial race in the state since 2004.

The governor-elect told supporters he plans to draw on his experiences as a businessman, congressman and U.S. senator to help all Hoosiers succeed.

“We’re going to take Indiana to places we’ve never been before,” he said to applause.

Holcomb won re-election four years ago with 56.5 percent of the vote and beat Democrat Woody Meyers by more than 24 percentage points. This year, Democrats hoped they could make McCormick the state’s first Democratic governor since Joe Kernan, who became governor when Frank O’Bannon died in 2003 and lost to Mitch Daniels a year later.

What gave Democrats hope was the Republican Party’s selection of Pastor Micah Beckwith as its candidate for lieutenant governor over state Rep. Julie McGuire, an Indianapolis lawmaker and candidate Braun’s favorite. McCormick and his supporters hoped that Beckwith’s positions on abortion and other social issues would turn more moderate voters toward them.

On Tuesday shortly before 10 p.m., she urged her supporters to continue the fight for reproductive choice and affordable health care.

“Even though tonight wasn’t the outcome we were looking for, we have so many wins, so many wins,” McCormick told supporters at his campaign party. “But it’s up to us to take advantage of it.”

Braun’s victory was part of a Republican victory in Indiana’s statewide races. Former President Donald Trump won the state’s 11 votes, handily defeating Vice President Kamala Harris. U.S. Rep. Jim Banks won the Senate race to succeed Braun, over Democratic candidate Valerie McCray, and incumbent Attorney General Todd Rokita also beat Democrat Destiny Wells to win re-election.