Democrat Kathy Jennings, a former top state prosecutor, sailed to victory Tuesday night in Delaware's attorney general race, securing more than 61 percent of the statewide vote.

The New York Times called the race around 9:20 p.m. Tuesday, nearly 1 1/2 hours after polls officially closed in the First State. The Associated Press called the race for Jennings seven minutes later. According to The Times, Republican challenger Bernard Pepukayi won about close to 39 percent of the tally and trailed Jennings by nearly 63,000 votes at press time.

“The attorney general is intended to be the 'people's lawyer' and as your lawyer, I will fight tirelessly to create effective criminal justice reform so everyone is treated fairly regardless of the color of your skin, the size of your bank account or the zip code you grew up in,” Jennings said in an election-night Facebook post.

Jennings, who served as chief deputy attorney general at the Delaware Department of Justice when Beau Biden ran the office, won 56 percent of the vote in September's four-way Democratic primary to secure the party's nomination in the general election. On Tuesday, she became just the second woman—and the first from the Democratic Party—elected to serve as the state's top law enforcement official.

Pepukayi, an attorney and longtime Democrat, switched his party affiliation earlier this year to run against Jennings, after Peggy Marshall Strong dropped out of the race in August, briefly leaving the Democratic nominee to campaign unopposed.

Pepukayi has served as Family Court commissioner and worked as deputy counsel to Democratic Gov. Ruth Ann Minner. His platform included juvenile justice reform and initiatives aimed at reducing recidivism and keeping people out of the criminal justice system.

Jennings campaigned on criminal justice reform and increased consumer protections. She has also promised to fight gun violence and the state's heroin and opioid crisis.

As attorney general, she is expected to engage with lawmakers in Dover, who have been working with prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges on a top-down rewrite of Delaware's criminal code.

Jennings is also likely to inherit a criminal investigation of sexual abuse in the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington. Current Attorney General Matt Denn confirmed the existence of the probe last week, after subpoenaing church officials in September.

Denn, who is nearing the end of his first term, did not run for re-election.

Jennings' totals generally tracked those of Democratic U.S. Sen. Tom Carper and U.S. Rep Lisa Blunt Rochester, who won their re-election bids with 60.8 percent and 65.4 percent respectively.

Colleen Davis on Tuesday defeated Republican incumbent Kenneth Simpler in the race for state treasurer, handing Democrats control of every statewide office in Delaware. In the General Assembly, Democrats maintained their majority in the House of Representatives and knocked out Sen. Gregory Lavelle to extend their edge in the Senate to 12 seats to the Republican's nine.