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PHILADELPHIA (AP) ― Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama triumphed Tuesday in Pennsylvania, winning both of the state's urban centers and running strong in key swing regions, despite an all-out push by Republican John McCain in the final days.

Obama received decisive support in Philadelphia and did well in its suburbs. He also gained ground in northeastern and southwestern Pennsylvania -- areas crucial to Republican nominee John McCain.

McCain prevailed in most of the Republican bastion of central and northern Pennsylvania.

The candidates split the white vote, but Obama was the overwhelming choice among blacks and Hispanics, according to an analysis of information from voters interviewed as they left polling places. The interviews were conducted for The Associated Press by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International.

Obama's victory marked the fifth straight presidential election in which the Democrats carried Pennsylvania.

With 88 percent of precincts reporting, Obama had 2,571,558 votes, or 56 percent, and McCain had 1,974,480, or 43 percent.

In Congress, powerful 17-term U.S. Reps. John Murtha and Paul Kanjorski overcame tough re-election challenges, but another House veteran, Phil English, was locked in a tight race.

When the polls opened at 7 a.m., voters at some polling places were already waiting in long lines amid expectations of the state's largest voter turnout in decades, driven in part by excitement over the prospect of the nation choosing its first black president.

"I want to be part of history. This is so cool, no matter how it turns out," business consultant and Obama supporter Cynthia Boscia, 50, said at the First Presbyterian Church in Allentown, where a record 160 people were in line when the polls opened.

Jennifer Capozzi, 25, a registered Republican who is employed as an administrative assistant in Philadelphia, said she regretted voting for Bush in 2004 and disliked what she viewed as the negative tack of McCain's campaign.

"I feel like (Obama) has the energy we need to get the country back on track," she said.

Republican Tom Corbett won re-election as attorney general and Democrat Jack Wagner won a second term as auditor general. Democrat Rob McCord, a newcomer to state politics, took the open seat of state treasurer.

Control of the state House of Representatives also was at stake in Tuesday's legislative elections. Democrats now hold a 102-101 advantage, and a loss of seats would give the GOP control of the full General Assembly.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton scored a nearly double-digit victory over Obama in the Democratic primary in April, a result attributed partly to disenchantment with Obama among white working-class voters.

Obama's running mate, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, sought to help Obama win over those same socially conservative voters by playing up his roots as a native of Scranton in northeastern Pennsylvania.

But Obama did not help his cause when he said shortly before the primary that many small-town Pennsylvanians "cling to guns or religion" because of they are bitter about their economic plight.

Pennsylvania is a strong gun rights state with almost 1 million licensed hunters.

The outlook for the GOP dimmed as Democrats added 600,000 voters to their rolls over the past year and the Republicans lost ground.

Democrats now outnumber Republicans by more than 1 million in a state that last chose a Republican for president when it supported George H. Bush in 1988.

McCain spent nearly three times as many days campaigning in Pennsylvania as Obama, but the GOP effort was hurt by some missteps.

A former Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice had to apologize for a GOP e-mail sent to Jewish voters that likened a vote for Barack Obama to ignoring warning signals that led to the Holocaust.

An estimated 6 million Pennsylvanians were expected to vote Tuesday, or 65 percent of residents old enough to vote. Some election experts said turnout could even be higher than 1960, when 70 percent of eligible Pennsylvanians cast ballots in the election won by John F. Kennedy, before 18-year-olds won the right to vote.

Election watchdog groups reported scattered problems at polling places around the state, including malfunctioning machines, understaffed polling places and poorly trained election workers. In one case, the Philadelphia district attorney's office sent teams to settle complaints that about a half-dozen Republican election observers had been ejected from polling places by Democratic election officials.

But election officials in the city of Philadelphia and Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh, said late Tuesday that the election had gone smoothly.

In the congressional races, Murtha beat back a challenge by William Russell, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who moved to the district to run against him, according to returns from more than 90 percent of precincts.

Murtha ratcheted up his campaign after describing his western Pennsylvania district as racist, apologizing for the remark, then telling another interviewer the region had been "really redneck" in years past.

The 76-year-old Democrat is a decorated Vietnam War veteran and one of his party's most outspoken critics of the Iraq war. He also is well-known, as a member of the House Appropriations Committee, for his ability to bring home millions of dollars of federal money for pet projects.

In northeastern Pennsylvania, Kanjorski beat back a challenge from Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta, a rising GOP star.

Barletta attracted national attention when he pushed through a law that sought to deny business permits to companies that employ illegal immigrants and fine landlords who rent to them. A federal judge struck down the ordinance as unconstitutional, but towns across the country emulated Barletta's efforts.

Kanjorski, a 12-term congressman, has been criticized for how he has doled out federal earmarks, including money he directed to a technology firm controlled by five family members which later filed for bankruptcy.

English, a seven-term GOP congressman who helped former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum get his start in national politics, was trailing businesswoman Kathy Dahlkemper, an anti-abortion Democrat, in a northwestern Pennsylvania swing district with returns from more than 80 percent of precincts.

(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)