McDonnell, a conservative former state attorney general, had about 60 percent of the vote with most precincts reporting. He led Democrat R. Creigh Deeds, a state senator.

McDonnell, who promised to create jobs in the down economy and fix the state's clogged roadways without a tax increase, will be the state's first Republican governor in eight years.

He succeeds Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, who was barred by state law from seeking a second term.

McDonnell, 55, boosted by a political mood shift that has left many voters cool to Democrats, prevailed with a disciplined economic message and by steering clear of hot-button social issues that in recent elections alienated voters in urban centers.

The Republican also benefited from a lackluster Democratic opponent voters came to know in good part from a video clip in which he waffled and stammered when asked if he would raise taxes.

Deeds, 51, failed to re-create the voting coalition that last year helped Barack Obama become the first Democratic presidential candidate to capture Virginia in four decades.

Many of the black and young voters who had helped send two Democrats in a row to the governor's mansion and two to the U.S. Senate stayed home yesterday.

McDonnell inherits a state government burdened by a severe budget crisis and a transportation network so underfunded that Virginia will soon lack the matching funds necessary to secure federal dollars for road-building.

From the start, McDonnell had history on his side: Since 1977, no party that has won the White House has gone on to capture Virginia's governorship the next year.

McDonnell's campaign was on the defensive for only a few weeks, starting with the publication in August of a Washington Post report detailing a master's degree thesis the candidate wrote in 1989 at what is now Regent University in Virginia Beach.

In the thesis, written at the school founded by Christian televangelist Pat Robertson, McDonnell, then 34, outlined an action plan for strengthening the traditional family in which he held that working women were detrimental.

Polls tightened. But McDonnell fought back with TV spots featuring supportive testimonials from his daughter, an Army veteran who served in Iraq, and a gallery of women who had worked for him in the attorney general's office.

McDonnell outspent Deeds, receiving huge support from outside groups, including $9 million from the Republican National Committee. The national Democrats directed $6 million to Deeds and others.

Born in Philadelphia, McDonnell grew up in Fairfax County and played football for Bishop Ireton High School before attending Notre Dame and marrying a cheerleader for the Washington Redskins.