Written by 
HARRISBURG, Pa. (WPVI) — Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race between three-term Democratic Sen. Bob Casey and Republican challenger David McCormick could help Republicans pad their newfound majority in the chamber in a battleground state contest that is one of the nation’s most expensive this year.
As of Wednesday night, McCormick led by roughly 30,000 votes, but a significant number remained uncounted and the race remains too close to call.
The Casey campaign said that with thousands of provisional ballots left to count, they are confident he will be re-elected.
A source told Action News that the McCormick campaign, however, is focused on a chunk of ballots left to count in Cambria County. They believe those votes will secure his victory.
At Casey’s election night party at a hotel in his hometown of Scranton, Mayor Paige Cognetti, a Casey ally, expressed confidence that Casey would ultimately win once all votes were counted.
“This could take a couple of days. We said it took a couple of days in 2020. We have to make sure we set expectations it might be a little bit,” said Cognetti.
But, she told partygoers just before midnight to go home in hopes that a result would become clear on Wednesday.
Casey also spoke to the crowd, saying, “Every single vote will be counted. No matter how long it takes.”
His campaign later released a statement that read in part:
“There are more votes that need to be counted in areas like Philadelphia and it’s important that every legal ballot will be counted. When that happens we are confident the Senator will be re-elected.”
McCormick also addressed his supporters in Pittsburgh Tuesday night, though he did not declare victory.
“We need leadership, we don’t have it, and we’re going to get it,” he said.
Casey, perhaps Pennsylvania’s best-known politician and the son of a former two-term governor, is seeking a fourth term after facing what he has called his toughest reelection challenge yet.
Casey, 64, is a stalwart of the state’s Democratic Party, having won six statewide elections going back to 1996, including serving as the state’s auditor general and treasurer.
McCormick, 59, is making his second run for the Senate after losing narrowly to Dr. Mehmet Oz in 2022’s Republican primary. He left his job as CEO of the world’s largest hedge fund to run after serving at the highest levels of former President George W. Bush’s administration and sitting on Trump’s Defense Advisory Board.
The race ran on national themes, from abortion rights to inflation. But it also turned on local ones, too, such as Casey’s accusation that McCormick is a rich carpetbagger from Connecticut’s ritzy “Gold Coast” – a caricature McCormick helped bring to life by mispronouncing the name of one of Pennsylvania’s local beers – trying to buy Pennsylvania’s Senate seat.
Casey also attacked McCormick’s hedge fund days, accusing him of getting rich at America’s expense by investing in Chinese companies that make fentanyl and built Beijing’s military.
McCormick, in turn, stressed his seventh-generation roots in Pennsylvania, talked up his high school days wrestling in towns across northern Pennsylvania – a sport that took him to the U.S. military academy at West Point – and his time running online auction house FreeMarkets Inc., which had its name on a skyscraper in Pittsburgh during the tech boom.
Live election 2024 updates in the Philadelphia region and the focus on Pennsylvania
Casey, a staunch ally of labor unions and President Joe Biden has campaigned on preserving the middle class, abortion rights, labor rights, and voting rights, calling McCormick and President-elect Donald Trump a threat to all those.
McCormick, in turn, accused Casey of rubber-stamping Biden administration policies on the border, the economy, energy, and national security that he blames for inflation, domestic turmoil, and war. He has attacked Casey as a weak, out-of-touch career politician and a sure bet to fall in line with Vice President Kamala Harris if she had become president.
Should McCormick win, he would be part of the red wave responsible for clinching the U.S. Senate.
David Barrett, a political science professor at Villanova, spoke about the impact of Republicans taking control of the Senate.
“The real bottom line is that a determined president who wants to do things can do those things very likely if he has strong support, if he has a House and Senate of his political party,” Barrett explained.
He also said he isn’t surprised by how close the race is, pointing to polls that predicted this as well as advertising.
“I saw a lot of the advertising by McCormick which really, really savaged Senator Casey, and I had the sense Casey was not sufficiently responding in kind,” Barrett said.
The race could lead to a recount if it’s decided by half a percentage point or less.
Copyright © 2024 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.