Bob Casey, Dave McCormick Senate Awaits 2024 Election Results

Pennsylvania’s nationally watched U.S. Senate race between Democratic Sen. Bob Casey Jr. and Republican challenger Dave McCormick was still too close to call Wednesday night, with no sign of a concession speech from either campaign.

While Casey held a lead for much of the campaign, the race tightened in the final days.

And as the ballots were counted Wednesday, McCormick held a slight edge, in line with a red wave across the state that helped former President Donald Trump regain the White House.

The Casey campaign showed no signs of conceding when the final votes were counted.

“There are more votes to be counted in areas like Philadelphia, and it’s important that every legal ballot is counted,” Casey spokeswoman Maddy McDaniel said Wednesday morning. “When that happens, we are confident that the senator will be re-elected.”

Shortly after 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, Allegheny Republican Committee Chairman Sam DeMarco told McCormick supporters gathered in Pittsburgh that he was “very encouraged” by the early results.

“We’re going to make history tonight,” he said. But a day later, when the counties counted their final ballots, the race still hadn’t been called.

A McCormick victory would displace a three-term member with extraordinary name recognition. Casey’s father was a Pennsylvania governor, and Casey, a mild-mannered centrist, has served in public office in Pennsylvania since 1996. McCormick, a West Point graduate and Gulf War veteran, is a former hedge fund executive who enjoys tens of thousands of millions. in expenses from a super PAC funded by financial industry billionaires.

While the race will not determine control of the Senate, as Republicans have gained seats in West Virginia and Ohio, it could play a large role in determining the strength of the GOP’s projected majority. If Casey and a handful of other Democratic incumbents survive, Republicans will have little room for defections in the upper chamber over the next two years.

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Both campaigns expected a close race despite Casey starting with a significant lead in the polls due to Pennsylvania voters’ greater familiarity with him. Not least thanks to a month-long deluge of television advertising, McCormick’s profile grew, and the contest was widely seen as a throwback in its final weeks.

The race saw more than $300 million in spending by the campaigns, their parties and outside groups. The largest outside user was Keystone Renewal, a pro-McCormick super PAC backed primarily by financial industry billionaires, some of whom knew the Republican from his days at Connecticut-based Bridgewater.

McCormick, who narrowly lost the 2022 GOP Senate primary to Mehmet Oz, this time found a message that resonated with voters anxious about the economy — and eager to support a candidate aligned with Trump.

McCormick “has a great background in business,” said Mary Dodgi, 80, a retired teacher who lives in Ross Township in Pittsburgh’s North Hills and who until a decade ago had been a registered Democrat. Now, she said McCormick and Trump represented the party “for the people.”

Casey loyalists preferred the moderate message of the Scranton native, who served as state auditor and state treasurer before making national headlines in 2006 by unseating conservative U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum.

Michael Marko, 66, volunteering Tuesday outside the polls at the Cione Rec Center in Port Richmond, said Casey, in his opinion, was the “most important candidate on the ballot.”

“Casey will keep Trump at bay,” Marko said.

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Casey’s politics have shifted to the left over the years on issues including abortion and same-sex marriage. But he has maintained a populist economic agenda, supported organized labor, opposed efforts to limit the natural gas industry and fought free trade deals, including those proposed by Democratic presidents.

This year, Casey’s message about inflation — he calls it “greed inflation” and blames for-profit companies rather than government spending — was embraced by Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign and other Democrats.

Casey is an ordinary Democratic senator who preaches the virtues of bipartisan civility, while McCormick is a clean-cut army man turned businessman. And while neither man shied away from attacking the other on the campaign trail, there was little drama in the race, leaving voters with a relatively simple choice between a career politician and a plutocratic newcomer.

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During the race, McCormick faced questions about his ties to the Commonwealth. This year, it was reported that he repeatedly flew on private jets back to Connecticut, where one of his daughters from a previous marriage lives.

Those questions put off some lifelong Republican voters, including Joyce Sanyour, 70, who said her decisions this election cycle were guided by her views on abortion access and her concerns about political incivility. “And I’m not sure where Dave McCormick lives,” she said.

But on Tuesday night, Casey supporters at his election watch party in Scranton seemed deflated.

“As the night went on, we just started getting sadder and sadder,” said Eunice Gray, 52, before getting into her car for the 40-minute drive home to Stroudsburg. “It feels like 2016 again, as opposed to 2020.”

Her husband, Curtis Gray, said he was worried about the country’s future if Trump and McCormick prevailed.

“This country is divided enough,” he said.

Staff writers Aubrey Whelan and Beatrice Foreman contributed to this article.