Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell showed his political survival skills, outlasting a strong challenge from Democrat Bruce Lunsford to win a fifth term during a time of economic distress and an unpopular president from his own party.

McConnell found a winning strategy by stressing his stature as the top-ranking Senate Republican and his ability to deliver loads of federal money for the Bluegrass state.

"It just goes to prove that incumbency and seniority still matter in Kentucky," said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

Sabato said McConnell also got a boost from fellow Republican John McCain, who won Kentucky handily while losing his White House bid to Barack Obama.

Still, it wasn't easy for McConnell, who praised his challenger for putting up a "tough and spirited" challenge in a bareknuckled, free-spending race.

"Winston Churchill once said the most exhilarating feeling in life is to be shot at and missed," McConnell told cheering supporters Tuesday night. "After the last few months I think he really meant to say there is nothing more exhausting. This election has been both."

Lunsford urged Kentuckians to embrace a new course during tough times, but his message came up short.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting, McConnell had 945,067 votes or 53 percent, compared with 840,286 votes or 47 percent for Lunsford.

Lunsford, an avid racing fan who owns thoroughbreds, said his campaign started as a long shot but he told dejected supporters Tuesday night that "we did make it a race down the stretch."

"I'm disappointed, but I'm not disappointed for me," he said. "I'm disappointed because there were some big things I think a lot of us wanted to get accomplished for Kentuckians."

Jennifer Moore, the state Democratic Party chairwoman, said Democrats came closer than they had in a long time to "ditching Mitch" — a refrain that pops up every six years when McConnell is on the ballot.

"Did we put McConnell on the run or what?" she said. "We made him work for this race."

Still, McConnell continued to lure plenty of Democrats to his side.

An Associated Press exit poll found that about a quarter of Kentuckians who consider themselves Democrats voted for McConnell. As expected, McConnell also played strongly among conservatives. But about two in five of those who consider themselves moderate, and about one in five of self-described liberals, backed McConnell, the poll found.

McConnell mainly kept to a tight campaign script, saying Kentucky profited from his Senate leadership stature by receiving hundreds of millions in federal support that he brought home.

That message stuck with Republican Caleb Ledford of Independence in northern Kentucky.

"He has a history of doing well for Kentucky," Ledford said.

While crisscrossing Kentucky, McConnell often steered clear of talking about the economy or his support for the government rescue plan for the battered financial industry.

Lunsford opposed that plan, saying during the campaign it "takes care of the banks and nobody else."

Six in 10 Kentucky voters who responded to the AP exit poll said they opposed the rescue plan. Still, more than half who opposed the measure voted for McConnell and the candidates were split among those supporting it.

Among Kentuckians worried about the national economy over the next year, voters were split evenly in their support of Lunsford and McConnell, the exit poll found.

The incumbent dominated fundraising heading into the final month of the election, but the race still generated waves of TV advertisements — some from outside Democratic groups interested in taking down the Senate's top Republican.

McConnell raised nearly $18 million in campaign cash through Sept. 30, while Lunsford had collected nearly $7.1 million, including $5.5 million from his own pocketbook.

McConnell said his Senate stature made him a prime target of liberal Democratic groups wanting him out of the way in Washington.

In hammering away at economic themes, Lunsford tried to tap into voters' anxieties about jobs, health care and retirement plans. He accused McConnell of being part of a failed leadership team with President Bush.

McConnell's ties to the White House weren't lost on Democrat Adam Ellis of Murray.

"I've been hearing a lot of negative things about McConnell and that he is Bush's right hand man in the Senate," Ellis said.

Lunsford, the millionaire founder of a Louisville-based nursing home company, touted his business background as an asset in perilous economic times.

But Lunsford's business connections also provided ammunition for McConnell's camp. One of the incumbent's ads criticized the health care provided to veterans by an out-of-state company with ties to Lunsford.

Lunsford unleashed an ad showing two bloodhounds chasing a McConnell impersonator to claim the incumbent was running from his record. The ad was a reprise of McConnell's bloodhound commercial in his victorious 1984 campaign against Democratic incumbent Dee Huddleston.

Lunsford also got a boost from Bill and Hillary Clinton, who campaigned with him.

In his triumphant speech to supporters Tuesday night, McConnell said he is poised to become the longest-serving senator in Kentucky history.

"When that happens, I'll have fulfilled another longtime dream — Mitch McConnell will be remembered for something other than those bloodhound ads," he said.