Following a country-wide GOP sweep of the electorate last Tuesday night, Democrat incumbent Bob Casey lost his re-election bid to Republican challenger Dave McCormick.
McCormick, a Washington, PA-born hedge-fund manager and combat veteran, beat Casey by just 40,000 votes – 0.6% of the votes cast.
As of publishing, Casey has yet to concede the race, which was called by AP on Nov. 7. His campaign team defended his silence in a statement.
“There are more than 100,000 ballots left to be counted – including tens of thousands of provisional ballots in counties favorable to Senator Casey,” Maddy McDaniel, a spokesperson for Casey, said.
The statement also added that several Democrat-leaning counties, including Philadelphia and Allegheny counties, still have 10,000-20,000 provisional ballots left to count.
Provisional ballots propped Fetterman up to his seat in 2022, but he led by much wider margins than Casey is looking to gain.
AP lists all counties in PA as being “98%” counted, with exceptions for Cambria, Columbia and Mercer counties. All three of those counties favor McCormick.
Cambria saw a halt in counting on Election Day due to misprinted ballots that could not be properly scanned.
According to AP, Casey performed worse in every area of the state than his reelection 6 years ago.
Casey had held his seat through three elections, first rising up to the Senate chambers in 2007.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer stalled inviting McCormick to the Senate’s orientation ceremony, echoing Casey’s team’s statement that there are too many votes left to count.
McCormick still plans on attending the orientation, stating in a post to X, “Looking forward to joining the Senate freshman class of 2025 for orientation this week!”
“I’m honored to represent the people of Pennsylvania,” McCormick said, “and will fight hard to make sure their voices are heard in Washington.”
McCormick previously lost to former candidate for Senate Mehmet Oz in the 2022 midterm Republican primaries, a race that Democrat John Fetterman ultimately won.
McCormick mostly ran on policies meant to reduce China’s influence on PA energy production, strengthening national defense and reducing government size and spending.
He was also widely criticized by Democrats for frequently spreading misinformation.
McCormick claimed that Casey voted to defund the police and ban fracking, that an influx of migrants increased the population of Charleroi, PA by 2000% and that China created the COVID-19 virus.
All of these claims were fact-checked as False by PolitiFact, a nonpartisan extension of the Poynter Institute.
Casey’s term will end on Jan. 3, 2025, where McCormick will then fill his seat in the Senate. McCormick will hold that seat for 6 years.
According to AP, Republicans hold the majority in the U.S. Senate, with 53 seats to Democrats’ 46.
