Dave McCormick defeats Bob Casey in Senate race, AP says

HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Associated Press named Republican Dave McCormick the winner in the race for one of Pennsylvania’s two seats in the U.S. Senate, defeating incumbent Democrat Bob Casey.

>> U.S. Senate race between Casey, McCormick too close to call

The 59-year-old McCormick was CEO of the world’s largest hedge fund and served in former President George W. Bush’s administration.

Casey is Pennsylvania’s longest-serving Democrat ever in the Senate. He’s been in the Senate since 2007.

McCormick first addressed supporters at his election night party in Pittsburgh while leading Casey by a razor-thin margin. He’d led the race since about 80% of the votes were in on election night.

“In the coming days, the election results will be finalized, and when they are, we will look forward to a new agenda, a new America,” he said early Wednesday morning. “We’ve looked at where all the rest are coming from and it looks like we are headed in the right direction.”

His campaign remained confident, issuing a statement Thursday saying they believed he would be Pennsylvania’s next United States senator.

Late Thursday afternoon, the Associated Press named McCormick the winner.

Casey’s campaign issued the following statement, arguing the race isn’t over yet:

“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. 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.”

It was McCormick’s second time running, this time with a clear primary and former President Donald Trump’s endorsement after he lost narrowly to the Trump-endorsed Dr. Mehmet Oz in 2022′s expensive seven-way primary.

He has a long resume that includes being decorated for his Army service in the Gulf War, earning a Ph.D from Princeton University, running online auction house FreeMarkets Inc. — which had its name on a skyscraper in Pittsburgh during the tech boom — and sitting on the boards of prominent institutions, including Trump’s Defense Advisory Board.

>> Channel 11 sits down with Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick

McCormick also suffered through a legion of attacks on his hedge fund’s investments, including accusations that he got rich at America’s expense by buying shares in Chinese companies that the federal government later came to consider part of Beijing’s military and surveillance industrial complex.

He made a bid for Jewish voters by traveling to the Israel-Gaza border, speaking to Jewish audiences across the state and arguing that Casey and the Biden administration have not fought antisemitism or backed Israel strongly enough in the Israel-Hamas war.

On the border, he backed Trump’s pledge to carry out a mass deportation of immigrants in the country without permission — prioritizing people with criminal records — and vowed to press for U.S. military action in Mexico to target fentanyl trafficking networks, a controversial idea that originated with Trump.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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