BREAKING NEWS: OBAMA WINS RE-ELECTION! SEE RESULTS BELOW.

President Barack Obama won re-election in a tight campaign, besting Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in enough swing states to secure four more years in office. 

Propelled by wins in Ohio , Wisconsin , Iowa  – states long touted as Obama’s “firewall” – the president won a long-fought election in which the economy, its slow pace of recovery and Obama’s management of it, became the central issue. 

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Barack Obama supporters celebrate on election night in Chicago.

NBC News declared Obama the projected winner of Ohio and the election after polls had closed on the West Coast. The president also held onto a series of Democratic strongholds, beating back Romney’s efforts to take back states Obama had won in 2008 and make inroads into traditionally Democratic strongholds, like Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Wisconsin. 

Exit polls suggested that the economy was, by far and away, the issue at the front of voters’ minds on Election Day. Romney edged Obama nationally by six points among voters who said the economy was their top issue.