After a long campaign, President Barack Obama was reelected to a second term on Tuesday.

Major news networks — including NBC, Fox News and CNN — called the election shortly after 11:15 p.m. after Obama was projected to win Iowa and Ohio, putting him over the required 270 electoral votes to return to the White House.

Although Republican candidate Gov. Mitt Romney continues to lead in the popular vote, major networks have projected that the votes of Western states such as California, which are yet to be counted, will put Obama above Romney.

“Today is the clearest proof yet that, against the odds, ordinary Americans can overcome powerful interests,” President Obama said in a statement on his campaign website.

As Obama supporters at his campaign headquarters in Chicago and across the country celebrated, networks have already started discussing the challenges the president will face in his second term, including a Republican-controlled House of Representatives and a highly polarized nation.

“President Obama got one of the rarest things we get in politics and in life: a second chance,” CNN analyst Alex Castellanos said.

In line with Obama’s victory, Democrats were projected to maintain control of the Senate, winning races in Connecticut, Virginia and Missouri. Democrat Chris Murphy defeated Linda McMahon for Joe Lieberman’s ’64 LAW ’67 Senate seat.

In addition, Democrat Elizabeth Esty beat out Republican Andrew Roraback to clinch the congressional seat in Connecticut’s 5th Congressional District. Roraback conceded the election shortly after 11:30 p.m. Tuesday night.

MATTHEW LLOYD-THOMAS