Maggie Hassan defeats Ovide Lamontagne for governor, Obama wins N.H. CONCORD, N.H., Nov. 6 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama defeated Republican challenger Mitt Romney in swing state New Hampshire, winning its four electoral votes, CNN projected Tuesday. New Hampshire went for Obama in 2008 and Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry in 2004. But the state has long been a battleground, and its voters are widely viewed as independent. Mitt Romney won the state's first-in-the-nation primary back in January, and he spends a lot of time in the state at his home on Lake Winnipesaukee. He was also governor of neighboring Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007. In another projection, former Democratic state Sen. Maggie Hassan was on course to defeat Republican Ovide Lamontagne to become New Hampshire's 81st governor, the network projected. With about 12 percent of the state's 301 voting precincts reporting, Hassan led Lamontagne, 60 percent to 37 percent, with 3 percent for Libertarian Party nominee John Babiarz of Grafton, N.H. Hassan, 54, a state senator from 2004 to 2010, said education and jobs would be her focus if elected governor. She was endorsed by former U.S. President Bill Clinton and the National Education Association's state chapter. She has pledged not to support a state income or sales tax as governor. Lamontagne, 55, is a lawyer and conservative stalwart who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 1996 and for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in 2010.