Republican candidate Dave McCormick ousted Democratic Senator Bob Casey, who was running for a fourth term, in Pennsylvania’s highly competitive Senate contest. McCormick’s victory not only ended a longstanding Pennsylvania political legacy but also secured the GOP’s 53rd seat in the Senate for 2025.
McCormick, a former Army officer and hedge-fund executive, narrowly defeated Casey, finishing with 49% of the vote compared to Casey’s 48.5%. With nearly all ballots counted, McCormick led by just over 30,000 votes, according to the Associated Press.
Due to the razor-thin margin, which fell within 0.5 percentage points, Pennsylvania law requires an automatic recount.
McCormick declared his win at 1 p.m. Thursday, a few hours before the Associated Press called the race. His campaign’s communications director, Elizabeth Gregory, shared on Twitter, “Any way you slice it, David McCormick will be the next United States Senator from Pennsylvania.”
Despite McCormick’s announcement, Casey held off on conceding the race, with his campaign still awaiting final counts.
“The count in Pennsylvania is still continuing,” tweeted Casey campaign spokesperson Maddy McDaniel. “Yesterday, the vote margin shrunk by 50,000 votes and this race is now within half a point, the threshold for automatic recounts in Pennsylvania.”
McCormick’s victory caps a determined two-year journey to reach the Senate. After narrowly losing the 2022 Republican primary to Mehmet Oz, who had the endorsement of former President Donald Trump, McCormick ran unopposed in this year’s primary. He appeared at campaign events across Pennsylvania with Trump.
Throughout his campaign, the 59-year-old McCormick presented Casey as an ineffective, longtime Washington insider who hadn’t delivered for Pennsylvania. McCormick’s message focused on change and a commitment to conservative principles for the swing state.
He promised to roll back regulations in the energy sector, preserve Trump-era tax cuts, and authorize the use of military force against Mexican drug cartels to address fentanyl trafficking along the southern border.
McCormick also pledged to push back against China and continue support for Ukraine and Israel through military aid.
Casey, 64, countered by targeting corporate greed and painting McCormick as an elitist disconnected from Pennsylvania values, a tactic that had previously helped Sen. John Fetterman defeat Mehmet Oz.
Attempting to separate himself from President Joe Biden’s stance on fracking, Casey sought to appeal to the oil-rich areas of Pennsylvania, despite his longstanding alignment with Biden on other issues over the years.
In a late effort to retain support, Casey’s campaign ads positioned him in agreement with Donald Trump on issues like trade and border security.
However, this approach didn’t prevent Casey from losing ground among Democrats, particularly as Trump carried Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes by a 2-point margin, boosting McCormick’s position on the ballot.
Pennsylvania’s Senate battle ranked as the second-most costly race in the 2024 election cycle, with campaign ad spending totaling $344 million.
{Matzav.com}