This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

DENVER — After an election in which so many Democratic governors and senators fell, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is still standing.

In an exclusive interview taped just hours after he claimed victory on Wednesday morning that aired Sunday morning on FOX31 Denver’s #COpolitics: From The Source, Hickenlooper acknowledged that the 2014 campaign was the toughest fight of his political career.

Despite aggressive attack ads from Republicans highlighting his controversial decision to grant an indefinite reprieve to death row inmate Nathan Dunlap last year, Hickenlooper was somehow able to maintain a strong personal brand as a pragmatic, positive centrist.

“His brand is worth a lot,” one prominent Republican told FOX31 Denver following the election, in which Hickenlooper, despite a long, inconclusive Election Night, eventually defeated Republican Bob Beauprez by a larger margin than GOP Senator-Elect Cory Gardner beat Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Udall by.

“He was consistently five points ahead of the rest of the [Democratic] field.”

Heading into a second term with a split legislature where Democrats maintain control of the House and Republicans will run the Senate after 10 years in the minority, Hickenlooper told FOX31 Denver that his style won’t change but that he will work harder to make sure every community around the state feels like its voice is being heard at the Capitol.