From: www.cnn.com

(CNN) -- CNN projects that Republican Bob McDonnell will win the race for governor in Virginia, reversing a trend of the state electing Democrats.

McDonnell, a 55-year-old former state attorney general, will be the first Republican to win the state's highest office in 12 years. Republicans will win races for Virginia's lieutenant governor and attorney general as well, CNN estimated.

GOP leaders are also hoping to oust New Jersey's embattled Democratic governor in the other major statewide race of the night. The two gubernatorial contests have been deemed by some analysts as the first major referendum on President Obama's administration.

McDonnell's projected victory is "a blow to President Obama and the Democrat Party," Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said in a statement. "It sends a clear signal that voters have had enough of the president's liberal agenda."

The direction of a sharply divided GOP may be at stake. Party leaders, demoralized after landslide defeats in 2006 and 2008, are hoping to win hotly contested gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey to help fuel a nationwide Republican resurgence.