After the Associated Press ruled the race in his favor, GOP U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick released a statement victory speech in Pittsburgh on Friday, thanking incumbent Sen. Bob Casey for his service to Pennsylvania and calling on him to step down.
“I recognize it too what it feels like to lose a close election,” McCormick said Friday, pointing to the 2022 GOP U.S. Senate primary in Pennsylvania in which he lost to Mehmet Oz by less than 1,000 votes. “We knew on election night that we had won because the math was clear and Sen. Casey couldn’t win, and the AP certainly admitted that yesterday when it called the race.”
But on Saturday morning, as votes were still being counted to determine whether he would become Pennsylvania’s next U.S. senator, McCormick flew to Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Casey harassed McCormick throughout the campaign for his connections to Connecticut, repeatedly pointing out: August 2023 AP article which maintained that the former hedge fund CEO continued to live in Connecticut even as he sought to represent the people of Pennsylvania.
Flight records show a private plane previously connected to McCormick that had departed Pittsburgh on the morning of November 9 and was bound for Bridgeport. How Vanity Fair reported. Last year, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) records showed McCormick co-owned four Platius PC-12 aircraft through PlaneSense’s PC-12 fractional ownership program. PlaneSense gives people who purchase one of the planes access to a fleet of private planes.
The As the Philadelphia Inquirer reported in March that after embarking on a statewide bus tour of Pennsylvania, where he said he would “live in a bus,” McCormick flew back to Connecticut that same day. McCormick said that the reason for his trip to Connecticut is because his youngest daughter from a previous marriage lives there and he visits her often.
Elizabeth Gregory, communications director for the McCormick campaign – it was written in a Sunday post on social media that McCormick “went to his daughter’s soccer game – the first one he managed to get to this season. Like her dad, she won! That night Dave was back in Pennsylvania. Please stop this inappropriate desperation.”
The Associated Press, which calculates election results based on a number of factors, including the number of votes remaining, announced the race for McCormick on Thursday. Shortly thereafter, however, the Pennsylvania Secretary of State noted that “at least 100,000 ballots remained to be processed, including provisional, military, foreign, and Election Day votes.” And Casey didn’t confess.
“I have dedicated my life to making the voices of Pennsylvanians heard, whether in the Senate or in a free and fair election,” Casey said in a statement Thursday evening. “We have made it clear that there are still over 100,000 votes left to be counted. It was in Pennsylvania that our democratic process was born. We must allow this process to continue and ensure that every vote that qualifies to be counted is counted. This is what Pennsylvania deserves.”
PBS NewsHour correspondent – Lisa Desjardins reported on Friday that the AP told her that “there are still about 109,000 ballots left to cast. That compares with 91,000 the day before. That is – they emphasize, and I emphasize – an estimate. They adjust it as they get more information.”
In the post on Friday, the AP reported that “McCormick’s lead widened Friday as more Election Day votes were added in Republican-leaning Cambria County and some smaller counties completed the process of evaluating and adding provisional ballots”. However, this advantage may shrink in the coming days as provisional ballots from areas with more Democratic leanings are reviewed by election officials.”
Other news outlets incl Headquarters Decision Desk and NBC News have not yet called the race for Sunday morning.
And after the count, if the vote margin is 0.5% or less, a recount will occur under Pennsylvania law.
On Friday in Philadelphia, the same day McCormick held his victory rally in Pittsburgh, a Court of Common Pleas judge denied McCormick’s request to enhance the number of GOP observers when counting provisional ballots. McCormick dropped a second lawsuit seeking a “global challenge” to the provisional ballots.
“Every day, counties across the commonwealth confirm that more votes need to be counted,” Casey campaign spokeswoman Maddy McDaniel said in a statement. “We know that over 100,000 ballots remain to be counted, including tens of thousands of provisional ballots in counties favorable to Senator Casey, and the McCormick campaign has acknowledged that these provisional ballots could impact the outcome of the election, while conducting unsuccessful lawsuits in order to get them thrown out. Pennsylvanians deserve to have their voices heard, and as state officials have made clear, counties across Pennsylvania need more time to tabulate the remaining votes.”
From Sunday unofficial results showed Casey with 3,330,514 votes or 48.43% for McCormick’s 3,370,659 or 49.01%.
This article was updated on November 10, 2024 at 12:18 pm with a comment from the McCormick campaign
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