''In talking to my mother, she always blesses me and tells me how much it is that she loves me,'' Salazar said, before paying homage to the love of community and hard work taught to him by his parents. ''Those are the values that I will stand for.''

The cowboy hat-wearing Colorado attorney general went on to beat GOP beer executive Pete Coors to win Colorado's open Senate seat last week. And his older brother, John, picked up another open seat, this one in Congress.

In a year when Republicans strengthened their grip on Congress and Bush decisively won a second term, the Salazar brothers offer a blueprint for Democrats desperate to make inroads in the nation's midsection.

The two got elected in a Republican-leaning state by playing up traditional values, faith and rural heritage while hammering home a populist message that included bashing tax cuts for the rich. Getting a boost from fellow Hispanics didn't hurt, either.

''It's a pioneering election which bodes well for the Democratic Party, the Hispanic community,'' said New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat often mentioned as a possible presidential candidate.

Salazar's Senate campaign is credited with helping Democrats take control of both houses in the Colorado Legislature for the first time since 1960, and with helping shrink Bush's margin of victory here from 2000 while it grew in most other states. Bush won Colorado by more than 8 points in 2000 but beat John Kerry by less than 6 points on Nov. 2.

''It probably explains why Colorado kept hanging in there as one of the battleground states,'' said Christian Grose, a political science professor at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis. Salazar ''talked about his faith, his background in a way that connects with people.''