Republicans sought to strengthen their House majority and took away the Democrats’ hold on the Senate early today, flirting with historic gains in elections midway through President Bush’s term.

In a marquee governor’s race, the president’s brother, Jeb, coasted to a new term in Florida.

Democrats won governorships in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin, a string of Midwestern states long in GOP hands. But Rep. Robert Ehrlich became the first Republican elected governor of Maryland in more than three decades, and Democratic incumbents fell in Georgia and South Carolina.

Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina was one of a half-dozen newly elected GOP senators.