Massachusetts House Speaker Ron Mariano called the election a “wake-up call” for Democrats. Republican Party Chairwoman Amy Carnevale said the results show “many working Americans and working Massachusetts residents feel like their concerns are not being heard.”

Political strategists say Trump has spoken more directly to those concerned about the cost of goods and the impact of the state’s growing immigrant population on their communities.

“Ultimately, yesterday’s results say Republicans have become more focused on the issues that matter to people,” said Republican pollster Jon McHenry. “They are focused on the economy and very focused on illegal immigration, which has had an outsized impact on Massachusetts.”

Based on preliminary results, Trump received about 48,000 more votes in Massachusetts this year than in 2020, or more than 36 percent of the total, compared to about 32 percent in the election against Biden. He won a majority of votes in nearly 80 of the state’s 351 communities, some of which swung heavily in the former president’s favor.

Much of the support for Trump here came from parts of southeastern Massachusetts, rural Worcester County and western Massachusetts near the Connecticut border.

While Republican support in Massachusetts is “far from enough to overcome decades of partisan patterns and voting,” McHenry said, negative feelings about the way Democrats have handled immigration and the economy are enough. to increase the overall share for Donald Trump.”

In the majority-Latino communities of Lawrence and Chelsea, Trump increased his margin of victory by double digits, mirroring the gains he made nationwide among Latino voters, particularly men. In Boston alone, where a woman of color with an unabashedly progressive platform was elected mayor just three years ago, he increased his vote The share rose from 15 percent in 2020 to 20 percent. This was repeated in the state’s most populous cities: Worcester, Springfield, Cambridge and Lowell.

Republican state Rep. Donald Wong said that “people ended up trying to look at the two people running…” . . and hopefully they had real confidence to see how (Trump) would run the country.

“I think foreign policy could be better under Trump,” said Wong, who lives in Saugus, a northern suburb that has become something of an indicator of the national mood. The city voted for Trump in 2016, Biden in 2020 and Trump again this year.

In interviews, Republican voters repeatedly said that the economy and immigration, as well as their belief that Trump would address those issues, drove them to vote for him.

Frank Kenny, a 54-year-old life coach from Boston who voted for Trump, said he suspects people voted with their wallets.

“People said Trump was an animal and so on – the media just ruined it. But things were better (during Trump’s first term),” he said. “People made money.”

Matt Johnson, a first-time voter from Norfolk, said immigration has affected him more than any other factor this election season, particularly with the migrant shelter that opened this summer in a former prison in his city.

“I feel like a lot of (the migrants) come here and get food stamps, housing and all that stuff that should go to other people who live here,” Johnson, 36, said.

Louis Murray, a 59-year-old insurance agent from West Roxbury, voted for Trump in 2016, 2020 and again on Election Day.

This year, however, he said he was even more confident Trump would win.

“In Massachusetts, we are now a border state,” he said shortly after Tuesday’s vote. The Democrats “have fully opened the border. . . . So you can’t double the limit and not expect people to respond.”

Regardless of how reliably blue Massachusetts typically votes in national elections, Murray said Trump has more support in the state than many would think.

“I got ‘thumbs up’ all day,” he said.

Similar trends were playing out in New England.

“People are not happy with where the country is going,” said longtime political pollster Joe Fleming of Rhode Island, noting that the economy and inflation are the most important factors for voters. “That doesn’t mean it will even be a red state in four years. It just means Trump was able to make a difference last night.”

Even in reliably Democratic college towns in New Hampshire, Trump’s improvement was impossible to miss. In Hanover, home of Dartmouth College, it rose from about 12 percent in 2020 to 14 percent this year; In Durham, home to the flagship campus of the University of New Hampshire, it rose from about 22 percent to more than 27 percent.

“New Hampshire retains its purple identity, so to speak,” said Dante Scala, a political science professor at the University of New Hampshire. “It was definitely influenced by national political forces, particularly an unpopular incumbent party.”

Republicans in Massachusetts had reason to celebrate beyond Trump’s improved performance.

According to MassGOP Chairman Carnevale, only one Republican has flipped a state legislature during a presidential cycle in the last 40 years. On Tuesday they flipped three.

John Gaskey, an El Paso native who made immigration a central plank of his campaign, defeated an incumbent Republican in the September primary and cruised to victory on Tuesday. Republican Justin Thurber defeated 12-term incumbent state representative Pat Haddad and Ken Sweezey won an open House race in Plymouth County. Kelly Dooner won an open Senate race in Taunton, home to a former hotel in the southeast corner of the state that has become a political flashpoint. For the first time in decades, she took the Republican seat.

All Republican incumbents also retained their seats.

“Typically in a presidential year, the GOP keeps expectations very low,” Carnevale said. “Earlier in this cycle, we felt our messages resonated with voters. We kept expectations a little higher.”

The victories mean a brighter future for the embattled state party, Carnevale said. Their goal is to bring back more voters and hopefully more donors.

Plus, she’s already hearing rumors of people interested in challenging Maura Healey for the corner office in 2026.

“We will have news on that front shortly,” Carnevale said.

The Globe’s Amanda Gokee, Niki Griswold, Steph Machado, Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio and Steven Porter contributed to this report.

Samantha J. Gross can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @samanthajgross.