Republican former hedge fund manager Dave McCormick has defeated U.S. Sen. Bob Casey in Pennsylvania's hotly contested U.S. Senate race, the Associated Press declared.
AP called McCormick the victor at 4:09 p.m.
Casey did not concede after the AP call.
“As the Pennsylvania Secretary of State said this afternoon, there are tens of thousands of ballots across the Commonwealth still to count, which includes provisional ballots, military and overseas ballots, and mail ballots," Casey campaign spokeswoman Maddy McDaniel said in an email at 4:29 p.m. "This race is within half a point and cannot be called while the votes of thousands of Pennsylvanians are still being counted. We will make sure every Pennsylvanian’s voice is heard.”
Unlike in an email earlier in the day, McDaniel did not express confidence that Casey will win in the latest email. McCormick's and Casey's campaigns issued statements earlier in the day predicting victory. McCormick's arrived via email shortly after 1 p.m. today, hours after a second statement from Casey.
"McCormick is up 30,679 votes with more to come, as ruby red Cambria County is still outstanding. While votes continue to be counted, any way you slice it, Dave McCormick will be the next United States Senator from Pennsylvania," McCormick spokeswoman Elizabeth Gregory said in the statement.
As of 4 p.m. today, McCormick led Casey by 31,189 votes. McCormick had 3,339,133 votes, or 48.95%; Casey, 3,307,944, 48.49%.; John C. Thomas, Libertarian, 87,696, 1.29%; Leila Hazou, Green, 64,086, 0.94%; and Marty Selker, Constitution, 23,068, 0.34%.
McCormick's lead had increased to 31,503 votes as of 1:23 p.m., up from 30,368 two hours earlier.
“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,” McDaniel said in the campaign's second statement. “With tens of thousands more votes to be counted, we are committed to ensuring every Pennsylvanian's vote is heard and confident that at the end of that process, Senator Casey will be re-elected.”
McDaniel expressed the same confidence in a statement Wednesday.
McCormick, a Pittsburgh resident who grew up in Bloomsburg, is trying to unseat Casey, a Scranton Democrat, who has served in the Senate since January 2007.
The vote count has been partially complicated by major problems with vote scanners in Cambria County where McCormick is running ahead.
WVIA began periodically tracking the margin between the two candidates at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. At that point, McCormick led Casey by 58,608 votes, according to results posted on the Pennsylvania Department of State website.
That lead slowly eroded during the rest of the day, dropping as low as 27,608 at 7:06 p.m., the Philadelphia Inquirer reported today.
Here’s WVIA’s tracking of McCormick’s lead:
Wednesday
10:30 a.m.: 58,608
11:53 a.m.: 55,840
11:56 a.m.: 55,716
12:09 p.m.: 54,959
12:27 p.m.: 51,017
12:37 p.m.: 49,488
1:09 p.m.: 50,042
1:30 p.m.: 50,043
2:07 p.m.: 50,043
3:45 p.m.: 31,440
5:13 p.m.: 30,707
7:06 p.m.: 27,608 (Source: Philadelphia Inquirer)
Thursday
10:08 a.m.: 31,096
10:57 a.m.: 31,105
11:25 a.m., 30,368
12:24 p.m., 31,460
1:23 p.m., 31,503
3:01 p.m., 30,991
3:55 p.m., 31,189
