(NewsNation) — NewsNation/Decision Desk HQ has called the race for the U.S. Senate seat for Pennsylvania in favor of Republican Dave McCormick.
See all Pennsylvania race results here.
He won over Democrat incumbent Sen. Bob Casey Jr. However, the Associated Press writes that the race is headed for a statewide recount, as counties continued Wednesday to sort through outstanding ballots and the campaigns jousted over which ones should count.
Casey still hasn’t conceded. During a brief exchange with reporters this week Casey said votes are still being counted “and will be for days.”
His campaign manager said in a statement Wednesday that “McCormick and his allies are trying to disenfranchise Pennsylvania voters.”
A lawyer representing Casey’s campaign said Republicans were challenging the provisional ballots of registered Democrats, delaying the vote counting process.
“What we are seeing this year is more organized, more disciplined, more directed and more comprehensive than what we saw in 2020,” attorney Adam Bonin said.
However, McCormick’s campaign consultant said it was Democratic-controlled counties that were dragging out the process by not adding the results of processed ballots to vote totals.
Casey sought a fourth term as the senior senator from Pennsylvania, making him the longest-serving Democratic U.S. senator in state history. Casey is the son of former Pennsylvania Gov. Bob Casey Sr. and won his most recent election in 2018 by 13 points. He announced he would seek another term after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2023 and underwent successful surgery.
Before he was elected to the Senate, Casey, who is an attorney, served as Pennsylvania’s state treasurer and auditor general. Throughout his political career, Casey has focused on issues of public health care, children’s welfare and public infrastructure. He centered his 2024 reelection campaign around protecting LGBTQ and workers’ rights, preventing the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, fighting fentanyl and securing the border, among other issues.
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Meanwhile, McCormick made an unsuccessful bid for Pennsylvania’s other Senate seat in 2022, losing in the Republican primary by 950 votes to Dr. Mehmet Oz. In the general election, Oz was defeated by now-Sen. John Fetterman. McCormick is a former hedge fund executive and CEO of Bridgewater Associates who worked previously for the U.S. Treasury Department under President George W. Bush. He was endorsed in 2024 by Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump.
McCormick is a West Point graduate and former U.S. Army captain who returned to his alma mater, where he taught economics. He also holds a doctorate from Princeton University. During his campaign, McCormick pushed to align Casey with Vice President Kamala Harris’ political stances on issues such as immigration, energy and the economy.
The Republican candidate built his 2024 Senate bid on issues that largely mirror the GOP’s platform — advocating for tighter border security measures, ending drug and human trafficking, “restoring America’s military might,” growing Pennsylvania’s energy sector with an “all of the above” energy strategy, among other issues.
Pennsylvania has remained a battleground state where Democratic presidential candidates won the state in seven straight elections before Trump won the state in 2016 against Hillary Clinton. Trump won the state by 0.7 percentage points in 2016 before the state returned to the Democrats in 2020 when Biden won over Trump by 1.2 points.
Less than a month before the election, The Hill/ Decision Desk HQ Election Center forecast that Casey had a 72% chance of winning his reelection bid in November. Casey also far outraised and outspent McCormick, raising $31.2 million and spending $23.3 million to the Republican’s $17.7 million raised and $9.4 million spent, according to Open Secrets.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.