Pennsylvania’s hotly contested Senate race hangs within the steadiness almost per week after Election Day, with Republicans declaring victory and Democrats holding out hope that the remaining batch of excellent ballots will enable them to shut the hole.
NBC News has but to venture a winner within the contest between Democratic Sen. Bob Casey and Republican Dave McCormick, who’re separated by simply over 40,000 votes with 98% of the anticipated vote in. An estimated 122,000 ballots have but to be tallied.
McCormick declared victory Thursday after The Associated Press known as the race in his favor. Since then, he and his GOP allies in Washington have ramped up the stress on Casey to concede, arguing he has no path to victory.
“The AP known as this race a variety of days in the past as a result of mathematically, there is no path for Sen. Casey to win,” McCormick mentioned in a Fox News interview Sunday.
“Ultimately, Sen. Casey’s going to need to determine when he is able to acknowledge that,” he added.
The Casey marketing campaign has argued the remaining variety of anticipated provisional ballots, significantly from locations like Philadelphia and the encompassing suburbs, might tilt the scales in its favor.
Maddy McDaniel, a spokesperson for Casey, who’s in his third time period, mentioned in an announcement Saturday that on daily basis counties “are confirming there are extra ballots that should be counted.”
“Pennsylvanians need to have their voices heard, and as state officers have made clear, counties throughout Pennsylvania want extra time to tabulate remaining votes,” she mentioned.
A McCormick victory would additional pad Republicans’ newfound majority within the Senate, the place they are going to maintain at the least 52 seats after the election. The dimension of the bulk might play an essential position in how a lot of President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda will cross and what number of of his nominees will get confirmed.
But even earlier than the brand new Congress is sworn in subsequent January, the end result of the Pennsylvania race might have implications for the Senate management elections Wednesday.
Three Republicans are vying to switch Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky because the social gathering’s chief, and senators-elect can take part within the vote.
Without a transparent winner but in Pennsylvania, although, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is ready to ask both McCormick or Casey to Congress this week for orientation and Wednesday’s vote — a transfer that has angered Republicans.
Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, who’s working to be the GOP chief, mentioned on X that “the concept that Schumer wouldn’t enable him to take part in Senate orientation is past unacceptable.”
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., known as Schumer’s transfer to carry off on inviting McCormick a “shameful, election-denying resolution” in a submit on X.
A Schumer spokesperson defended the choice, pointing to the variety of ballots which have but to be counted in Pennsylvania.
“With over 100,000 ballots left to be counted in Pennsylvania, the race has not been determined,” spokesperson Alex Nguyen mentioned. “As is customized, we are going to invite the winner as soon as the votes are counted.”
Similarly, Arizona Democratic Senate candidate Ruben Gallego was additionally not invited to the orientation as his race towards Republican Kari Lake is just too near name, in line with an NBC News projection. He leads by 2 share factors with 91% of the anticipated vote in.
Provisional ballots have been a contentious challenge in Pennsylvania even earlier than Election Day. Pennsylvanians can solid provisional ballots when officers are unclear about their eligibility or there have been points with their returned mail-in ballots. In the times after an election, officers work to find out whether or not such voters are eligible to solid ballots, and if they’re, their votes might be counted.
In the times earlier than Election Day, the U.S. Supreme Court dominated to permit Pennsylvania voters who despatched mail ballots that have been flagged as probably faulty to submit separate provisional in-person ballots, rejecting a lawsuit from Republicans.
McCormick’s marketing campaign filed two lawsuits Friday difficult an estimated 15,000 to twenty,000 provisional ballots in Philadelphia that will have points, comparable to lacking signatures. Philadelphia is a deep-blue space, and the leads to the county to this point have leaned closely in Casey’s favor.
The court docket dismissed the problem in the meanwhile.
As of Sunday, the Casey marketing campaign was nonetheless expressing optimism about overcoming its vote deficit, pointing to the roughly 76% of provisional ballots that favored Democrat John Fetterman over Republican Mehmet Oz in 2022.
“We don’t imagine we have to attain Fetterman’s % breakdown as a way to win. What’s extra, there are millions of ballots which are supportive of Casey which are being cured,” mentioned an individual near the Casey marketing campaign, referring to the processing of addressing minor errors on mail ballots, comparable to signature points.
At the presidential stage, NBC News projected that Trump received Pennsylvania. He leads Vice President Kamala Harris by about 2 share factors.