Breaking News: Obama wins.

Washington -- President Barack Obama rode a wave of broad support from minorities, women and moderates to win re-election Tuesday by defeating Republican challenger Mitt Romney in                     Democratic strongholds and key battleground states.

According to CNN projections, Obama surpassed the decisive 270-vote threshold in the Electoral College with victory in Ohio. The win gave him 274 electoral votes to 201 for Romney, based on CNN's projections based on unofficial returns.

Joyful supporters danced and cheered at Obama's victory party in Chicago, while the mood at Romney's election-night gathering in Boston was somber.

Obama withstood a late push by Romney in Pennsylvania and won battleground states of Ohio, Wisconsin and Iowa, according to CNN projections.

He also easily won traditional Democratic strongholds of California, New York and other populous states such as Michigan and Pennsylvania, where Romney mounted a late but unsuccessful push.

Exit polls showed Obama received strong support, as expected, from women voters as well as overwhelming support from African Americans and strong backing from Hispanic voters, similar to the coalition that carried him to victory four years earlier to make him the nation's first African American president.

Meanwhile, CNN projected that Democrats will retain their majority in the Senate, ensuring another divided Congress after Republicans earlier were projected to hold their majority in the U.S. House.

Obama's campaign sent the following email to supporters. "I'm about to go speak to the crowd here in Chicago, but I wanted to thank you first.

I want you to know that this wasn't fate, and it wasn't an accident. You made this happen.

You organized yourselves block by block. You took ownership of this campaign five and ten dollars at a time. And when it wasn't easy, you pressed forward.

I will spend the rest of my presidency honoring your support, and doing what I can to finish what we started.

But I want you to take real pride, as I do, in how we got the chance in the first place.

Today is the clearest proof yet that, against the odds, ordinary Americans can overcome powerful interests.

There's a lot more work to do.

But for right now: Thank you.

Barack"