NASHVILLE — Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee found support across the political spectrum to trounce Democrat Bob Tuke and win re-election on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, eight incumbent U.S. House members from Tennessee won re-election.

Alexander is a former two-term governor who also ran for president twice. Tuke is a Nashville attorney and former chairman of the state Democratic Party who struggled to raise money during the campaign.

With 86 percent of precincts reporting, Alexander had 1.38 million votes, or 67 percent, to Tuke’s 607,127, or 30 percent.

Alexander praised Tuke for running “a clean campaign on the issues” after the Democrat called to concede. Alexander pledged to take a bipartisan approach to his second term in office, which will be especially important given Republican losses in other Senate races around the country.

Moderates, conservatives and even liberals supported Alexander’s re-election bid, according to voter interviews conducted for The Associated Press by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International.

Alexander won about 80 percent of the conservative vote, a majority of moderates and three of every 10 liberal votes in a state where conservatives and moderates dominate.

He also received three of every four votes from independents, virtually all GOP votes and one of every five Democratic votes.

“I am grateful to the Republican Party for giving me the opportunity to be its nominee,” Alexander said. “But I also thank the independents and Democrats who supported me.”

Alexander received nearly twice as many votes as Tuke from the majority of voters saying the economy is the top issue facing the nation. He also won among those citing energy policy, terrorism and health care. Tuke, a Marine Vietnam veteran, did better among voters most worried about the war in Iraq.

Alexander avoided becoming the first incumbent senator to lose a re-election bid in Tennessee since 1994. Democrats now haven’t won a Senate race in Tennessee since Al Gore’s last re-election in 1990.

All eight incumbents and one new Republican were elected as Tennessee’s delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives. The makeup of the delegation remains five Democrats and four Republicans.

Johnson City physician Phil Roe will represent the 1st Congressional District in the upper northeast corner of the state. Roe defeated incumbent Rep. David Davis by fewer than 500 votes in the Republican primary in August.

The returning members are Democratic Reps. Steve Cohen, Jim Cooper, Lincoln Davis, Bart Gordon and John Tanner. The returning Republicans are Reps. Marsha Blackburn, Jimmy Duncan and Zach Wamp.

For Democratic supporters gathered at a joint Obama-Tuke party at the Cannery Row music club in Nashville, Tuke’s loss was no great surprise.

“Alexander is a popular incumbent here,” said Jonathan Farmer, 35, a lawyer in Nashville. “But Tuke would have made a great senator.”

Sean Tierney, a 21-year-old Vanderbilt University student, cast his first ballot in a presidential election at a Nashville elementary school when he voted for Barack Obama. But when it came to the race for the U.S. Senate, the student split the ticket and went with Alexander. He said he liked Alexander’s biography and his manner.

“He seems like a genuine person who actually cares about the direction of this country,” Tierney said.

Alexander’s high name recognition in Tennessee helped him with Amanda Shaw, a 20-year-old student at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She voted for Obama, but also cast a vote for Alexander.

“I voted for Lamar Alexander,” she said. “I basically voted for the first name I recognized.”

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Associated Press Writers Bill Poovey in Chattanooga, Duncan Mansfield in Knoxville and Juanita Cousins in Nashville contributed to this report.