The Republican Party's decades-old grip on the state's congressional delegation crumbled under a nationwide Democratic wave yesterday. New Hampshire voters made Carol Shea-Porter and Paul Hodes the state's members of the new majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Hodes's dramatic defeat of 12-year House veteran Charles Bass in the 2nd Congressional District paled in shock value compared to the upset win by anti-war political unknown Carol Shea-Porter over Jeb Bradley.

Not only did Shea-Porter become the first woman to represent New Hampshire in Washington, but she ensured that the state would have two Democratic U.S. House members for the first time since 1912.

"We will be back," a stunned Bradley told supporters in Manchester last night. "We got caught in a perfect storm."

Hodes's victory was larger than experts had predicted. With 96 percent of the votes counted, he led Bass, 53 to 45 percent, with 2 percent for Libertarian Ken Blevens.

Hodes won by huge margins in traditional Democratic strongholds, and Bass fell well short of making up the difference in the scores of small towns he had virtually owned in his previous six elections.

The 1st District followed the same pattern, although the margin was tighter. With 96 percent of the votes counted, Shea-Porter led Bradley, 51 to 49 percent.

She defeated Bradley in Manchester, Exeter, Epping and by huge margins in Portsmouth and other Seacoast communities. The margins of Bradley wins in the Manchester suburbs were too small to make up the difference.

An emotional Bass told supporters in Concord, "None of the 12 years I served in Washington have been wasted. Things did not turn out quite as well as I had hoped they would tonight."

But Bass, who has been rumored as a potential candidate for governor someday, said bluntly he will return to elective politics.

"I don't intend to make this the end of my political service to New Hampshire," he said. "If the opportunity ever presents itself again, I will jump into the political fray with as much enthusiasm and excitement as I have in the past."

Hodes told a jubilant crowd of backers, "It's a great night to be a Democrat in the United States of America. The people of New Hampshire are ready to move this country forward to a new tomorrow, they are ready for a new direction. They have voted for change."

Bradley said, "Change is coming in the wind, and the pendulum will swing one way, and then it will swing back the other way."

Shea-Porter told supporters in Portsmouth, "I'm going to do exactly what I promised. I'll speak out for the rest of us. We're going to make a difference down in Washington because we are our own voice here."

State Democratic Chair Kathy Sullivan, ecstatic, told the New Hampshire Union Leader, "I'm going to Disney World.

"This is beyond my best hopes," she said. "I feel as if the New Hampshire I always wanted to see but never dreamed I would see became a reality today."

Secretary of State William Gardner last night said the last time two New Hampshire Democrats were elected to Congress was during the 1912 election, when Raymond B. Stevens of Landaff and Eugene E. Reed of Manchester won. Both served one term in Washington. That was the year Democrat Woodrow Wilson was elected President, Democrat Samuel Felker, from Rochester, was elected governor of New Hampshire and Henry F. Hollis of Concord was elected to the U.S. Senate.

►What now? Tell us what Lynch and Legislature should do
►Celebrating the results? Buy photos, front page reproductions
►ELECTION NEWSBLOG: A historic Democratic triumph
►Democrats sweep races across nation
►Election news from around the country
►AP Video: The latest national election stories

In key 2nd District results yesterday, Hodes took more than 66 percent of the vote in Keene, about 56 percent in Nashua, fell only 35 votes short of Bass in the mostly GOP town of Bow and defeated Bass by nearly 600 votes in his hometown of Peterborough. In GOP-dominated Milford, Bass won by only 30 votes. He won by 50 votes in Hollis and 600 votes in another GOP stronghold, Salem.

In the 1st District, Shea-Porter beat Bradley by 960 votes, or 52 to 48 percent, in Manchester. She beat Bradley by 1,000 votes in Exeter, while Bradley won by 500 votes in Hooksett and in Londonderry by 350 votes - not enough to overcome her huge individual victories.

The voting ended two hard-fought campaigns in a rare year when the U.S. House races dominated the state political headlines more than the contest for governor.

The 2nd District race received national attention as the Washington-based Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee viewed Bass as vulnerable and targeted him with $1.1 million worth of negative advertising purchased in Manchester, Boston and even White River Junction, Vt.

Hodes, 55, a New York City native, Dartmouth College graduate, former state prosecutor and a current partner at Shaheen and Gordon P.A., was successful in his second consecutive attempt to unseat Bass, 54.

Bass's political lineage dates back to his grandfather, Robert P. Bass, a former governor and confidant to Theodore Roosevelt. Bass's father, Perkins, represented the 2nd District from 1955 to 1963. He said last night he still intended to "walk Bass Road" and discuss "the great issues of the day" with his father.

After defeating the Democratic incumbent Dick Swett in 1994, Bass easily won reelection five times over five different Democrats, including Hodes in 2004.

This year, Hodes promised to be a better candidate than the one who lost to Bass by 20 percentage points two years ago even as Democrats won the Presidential and gubernatorial race in New Hampshire. Hodes began with massive fund-raising, then tirelessly criss-crossed the district, while Bass largely stayed in Washington until the final month of the campaign as his organization appeared at times listless and complacent.

Hodes and Shea-Porter, 53, tried to link the two incumbents to an unpopular President George W. Bush, the unpopular war in Iraq and the scandal-plagued House Republican leadership.

Shea-Porter, who grew up on the Seacoast and graduated from Oyster River High School, engineered a startling upset in the Sept. 12 primary over well-funded Manchester state Rep. Jim Craig.

Hodes charged that Bass broke the promises made when he came into office in 1995 and signed the GOP "Contract with America," pledging fiscal responsibility and open government.

Bass had said in the past that House members and senators should be limited to 12 years in office.

Bradley and Bass were now in the pockets of the big oil, drug and insurance companies that contributed big dollars to their campaigns, Shea-Porter and Hodes charged.

Bass and the National Republican Congressional Committee labeled Hodes a tax-and-spend liberal primarily because of his support for rolling back tax cuts on the top 2 percent of wage earners and for a national health care system. Hodes countered that Bass was part of a GOP-dominated "borrow and spend" Congress that ran up record deficits.

Staff reporters Carol Robidoux and Ben Kepple contributed to this report.