JACKSON — Republican John McCain won the presidential race in Mississippi, despite a strong turnout by black voters for Democrat Barack Obama.

With 75 percent of precincts reporting, McCain has about 57 percent of the vote in Mississippi, well ahead of Obama’s 42 percent.

Mississippi was on track to have a record turnout, with long lines starting before dawn. In many parts of the state, people were still standing in line when polls were set to close at 7 p.m., and officials said those people were allowed to vote.

In the races for the U.S. Senate, Republican Roger Wicker defeated Democratic former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove in a special election to fill Trent Lott’s old U.S. Senate seat.

Republican Thad Cochran also won a sixth term in the U.S. Senate, easily defeating Democrat Erik Fleming.

Wicker spent 14 years as north Mississippi’s 1st District congressman, and Republican Gov. Haley Barbour appointed him to temporarily fill the Senate seat after Lott abruptly retired in December to become a lobbyist.

“A year ago, this would’ve seemed unlikely,” Wicker told cheering supporters at a Jackson hotel.

Wicker and Musgrove are longtime friends who shared an apartment in Jackson in the early 1990s when they were both in the state Legislature. Wicker said Musgrove has a reputation for working hard. “It was clear early on that he came to play,” Wicker said.

With 86 percent of precincts reporting, Wicker had 56 percent and Musgrove had 44 percent.

Musgrove’s campaign spokesman, Adam Bozzi, said Musgrove would not concede Tuesday night because the campaign wants to see absentee vote totals Wednesday.

Both national parties spent millions of dollars on the Wicker-Musgrove race, and the candidates ran hard-hitting ads that picked apart each other’s records.

Cochran had more than 62 percent of the vote Tuesday night. The 70-year-old has been in the Senate 30 years. He’s the ranking Republican on the powerful Appropriations Committee and has helped bring billions of dollars to his home state, one of the poorest in the nation.

In the four races for the U.S. House of Representatives, Republican Gregg Harper of Pearl has won Mississippi’s 3rd District race, besting Democrat Joel Gill for the open seat.

Harper had nearly 64 percent of the vote in early returns on Tuesday. The 3rd District seat in east Mississippi had been held by Republican U.S. Rep. Chip Pickering, who decided not to seek re-election after 12 years in Congress.

“It has been a true grass-roots campaign. God has truly directed our paths,” Harper said Tuesday before his victory speech.

Also Tuesday, U.S. Reps. Bennie Thompson and Gene Taylor, both D-Miss., won re-election after easily defeating two little-known Republican candidates. Thompson is chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.

The only House race that remained undecided was between Democrat U.S. Rep. Travis Childers and Republican Greg Davis.

Harper, 52, a former Rankin County Republican chairman and longtime GOP volunteer, was favored to win as Gill, a relatively unknown candidate, ran a low-key campaign.

Gill, a 57-year-old cattle buyer and seller, is an alderman in the town of Pickens, which is not in the 3rd District. The law does not require candidates to live in the congressional district where they’re running.

Mississippi has voted Republican in every presidential race since 1980. It has six electoral votes.

Many black Mississippians said they never thought they’d get to vote for a black nominee with a realistic chance of winning the presidency.

Some Republicans said they were lukewarm on McCain but like his vice presidential choice, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Others said they admire McCain’s military record.

Dr. Steve Hindman, 60, a physician from Jackson, said he voted for McCain because he believes the Republican is more experienced than Obama and will do a better job handling the war in Iraq.

“I like his taxes better. I like his medical stance a lot better,” Hindman said of McCain.

Kimberly Swims-Cornelius, 31, a customer-service representative for a telecommunications company, said health care and the economy were her two biggest concerns, and she believed Obama was stronger on both. She said after her second son was born three months premature last year, and her insurance company dropped the baby’s coverage after his hospital bills hit $725,000. She wants the government to put tighter regulations on health care.

“Republicans — I’m not trying to be cynical, but things in Washington are not going the way they should be,” said Swims-Cornelius of Jackson. “It’s time for a change.”

McCain and Obama had the first of their three debates at the University of Mississippi on Sept. 26. Other than that appearance, the two nominees largely ignored Mississippi the past few months as they spent time and money in battleground states like Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida.

Marvin King, a University of Mississippi political scientist, said the faltering national economy overshadowed other issues in the presidential race.

“It’s a little unfortunate that we didn’t get to spend more time talking about Hurricane Katrina and how the federal government should behave the next time there’s an event like that,” King said.

Parts of the Mississippi Gulf Coast are still struggling to recover more than three years after Katrina, although the state has received billions of federal dollars.

King said Obama’s strong showing in Mississippi is proof that black people, who make up 37 percent of the state’s population, can strongly influence elections. He said Obama also drew white votes.

“Give the black voters some candidates that they really believe in, and we can actually have some competitive elections here,” King said.

In his race against Cochran, Fleming had hoped for a boost if Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama increased black voter turnout. Cochran’s appeal cuts across lines of race and party. He has had several black staff members and makes appearances at events that attract diverse crowds.

Mississippi lost significant influence on Capitol Hill when Lott retired to become a lobbyist. He had been in Washington since 1972 — the first 16 years in the House — and was barely a year into his fourth Senate term.

Cochran told The Associated Press he is “very firm” in planning to serve the full six years of the term that starts in January.

The fierce special election to succeed Lott far overshadowed the Fleming-Cochran race. Musgrove and Wicker are both tall, slender and prematurely gray, and some voters had trouble telling the men apart. Both national parties spent millions of dollars in the contest.

The candidates ran a series of hard-hitting ads that picked apart each other’s records. Wicker called Musgrove a failed governor who left the budget in shambles and allowed jobs to evaporate. Musgrove said Wicker, during 14 years in north Mississippi’s U.S. House seat, was part of a pay-to-play Washington culture that enriched Wicker’s campaign donors and former staffers who moved onto private companies that received government contracts.

In his defeat of Gill for the 3rd District House seat, Harper said he wants to focus on the nation’s energy policy. Harper said he supports drilling off shore, as well as wind and solar energy sources.

“We’re also committed to helping families who are raising children with special needs. Our son has special needs. We know the blessings and challenges that go along with that,” Harper said.

Thompson, who received 75 percent of the vote on Tuesday, has represented Mississippi’s 2nd District that covers most of the Delta region and parts of Jackson since 1993. His challenger, Richard Cook, is a 49-year-old public school teacher who lives in Byram.

Sixty-year-old Letha Steen of Jackson said she voted for Thompson because “he’s done more than others.”

Taylor defeated John McCay, a minister from Gulfport, with nearly 67 percent of the vote. Taylor was first elected in 1989.

The race between Childers and Davis was a rematch. Childers of Booneville defeated Davis in a special election held in May to fill the seat formerly held by Republican Roger Wicker before he moved to the Senate.

The 50-year-old Childers, a former Prentiss County circuit clerk, headed into the race with an edge since he has a five-month incumbency. He’s a conservative Democrat who supports pro-gun and anti-abortion issues. Childers said job creation is one of the most important issues in the district.

Davis, the 42-year-old mayor of Southaven in DeSoto County, had changed the tone of his campaign since their first showdown, when he tried to tie Childers to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the former pastor of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Wright, who is black, had drawn criticism for fiery sermons that many perceived as racist because he said America should be condemned for its treatment of minorities.

Davis’ ads didn’t work in the special election. He carried only four of the 24 counties in the 1st District in north Mississippi.