Dave McCormick defeats Bob Casey in Senate race, AP says

HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Senate race has now been called by the Associated Press with Republican Dave McCormick winning the razor-thin race. As votes continue to be counted, Sen. Bob Casey said he is not conceding until every vote is counted.

>> U.S. Senate race between Casey, McCormick too close to call

Channel 11 News spoke with top party leaders tonight to get their reaction on this pivotal race.

“I felt Dave McCormick was the best candidate from the time I first talked to him,” said Sam DeMarco, the Chairman of the Republican Committee of Allegheny County.

DeMarco told us that he was confident throughout this race that McCormick would pull off a victory.

“When I looked up his resume and all the things, he had done I felt blessed that we have people of that caliber that want to give back to the public,” he said.

Casey isn’t giving up, with thousands of votes still left to count, the state’s longest-serving Democratic senator has not conceded.

Casey’s campaign shared this statement on Thursday night.

“It has been made clear there are more than 100,000 votes still to be counted. Pennsylvania is where our democratic process was born. We must allow that process to play out and ensure that every vote that is eligible to be counted will be counted. That is what Pennsylvania deserves.”

>> Channel 11 sits down with Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick

“There are still about 100,000 ballots to be cast we need to take a very close look at where those ballots are coming from,” said Jim Burn, the Chairman Emeritus of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.

Burn said while the numbers are likely accurate with many of the remaining votes coming out of Cambria County which leans red. He said this loss is a learning lesson.

“Where did the disconnect take place what failed in the messaging, what failed in the ground game, study from it, learn from it, pivot around, and get ready to go in two years,” Burn said.

In 2022 Sen. John Fetterman easily won as a Democrat. While McCormick was unable to secure a place on the ballot losing his primary race to Dr. Mehmet Oz, so what changed in just two years?

Chairman DeMarco said it was about Pennsylvanians getting to know McCormick.

“He started running last year for this position, it gave him time to get to know the Commonwealth and for the people of the Commonwealth to get to know him, and recognize what a real leader he is,” DeMarco said.

While Burn said inflation likely was the key factor that thrust McCormick ahead.

“You can’t turn away from the numbers, they are out there and people do not believe that they are as well off as they were four years ago. Although I think the Democrats had a better path and better message to fix things, it was about change,” Burn explained.

As of Thursday night, only about 30,000 votes are separating the two candidates. The votes will only be recounted if the separation is half a percentage point unless the candidate requests and pays for the recount.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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