Niki Tsongas won an overwhelming victory today, defeating Republican challenger Jon Golnik, 112,845 to 87,397, a 13 point margin of victory (55% to 42%). But Tsongas was not alone: all of her Massachusetts House colleagues were easily reelected and Bill Keating won the vacant southeastern Massachusetts seat by a healthy margin over Republican Jeff Perry. Add to that Governor Patrick’s seven point victory over Charlie Baker (the same margin declared by the Suffolk University poll throughout October) and the 14 point defeat of Question 3 (the rollback of the state income tax) and Massachusetts stands as a national breakwater against the Republican tide that seemed to be sweeping across the nation this November.

Here’s a breakdown of the Tsongas-Golnik race in Greater Lowell:

Billerica – Tsongas won by 560 votes, 7326 to 6766;
Chelmsford – Golnik won by 237 votes, 7253 to 7016;
Dracut – Golnik won by 334 votes, 5441 to 5107;
Lowell – Tsongas won by 6297 votes, 13,694 to 7397;
Tewksbury – Golnik won by 166 votes, 5599 to 5433;
Tyngsborough – Golnik won by 429 votes, 2426 to 1997;
Westford – Tsongas won by 59 votes, 4725 to 4666.

Compare those numbers with the Patrick v Baker results from the same communities (with Cahill omitted):

Billerica – Baker won by 3154 votes, 8121 to 4967;
Chelmsford – Baker won by 2321 votes, 8036 to 5715;
Dracut – Baker won by 2877 votes, 6305 to 3428;
Lowell – Patrick won by 1838 votes, 10,792 to 8954;
Tewksbury – Baker won by 2772, 6472 to 3700;
Tyngsborough – Baker won by 1248, 2699 to 1451;
Westford – Baker won by 1377 votes, 5209 to 3832.

In these seven Greater Lowell communities, Baker beat Patrick by 11,911. In those same communities, Tsongas beat Golnik by 5750. That’s a swing of 17,661 votes towards Tsongas which is a pretty good measurement of the scale of her victory.