(The Center Square) – Nearly 24 hours after polls closed across Pennsylvania, voters still don’t know who their next U.S. senator will be.
As of 4 p.m., Republican Dave McCormick clings to a 31,000-vote lead, with 98% of ballots counted, according to The Associated Press.
State returns show just under 6.8 million voters cast a ballot in the race out of 9 million registered.
McCormick’s performance is an outlier result given the strong performance of other Republican candidates for statewide office, all led by President-elect Donald Trump’s three-point upset.
Charlie Gerow, a Republican strategist based in Harrisburg, told The Center Square on Wednesday that he’s not that surprised.
“It’s a very, very different situation when you are running against a U.S. incumbent senator,” he said, noting that McCormick ran “a tireless” campaign unlike any other he’s seen in four decades of political involvement.
An attempt to contact the Pennsylvania Democratic Party for comment was unsuccessful on Wednesday.
Casey, first elected in 2006, hopes to return to Washington, D.C., for his third term. His platform centered around holding food conglomerates accountable amid accusations of price gouging that persisted even after the pandemic supply chain shortage ended.
McCormick sees things differently.
In a recent debate, he blamed the Biden administration’s spending policies for driving up inflation. Casey’s support for a plan to punish food corporations for “greedflation” is also akin to socialist price controls, he added.
The messaging isn’t far off from Trump, who’s simple campaign promise to fix what the Democratic administration broke resonated across the commonwealth.
And like Trump, Gerow said, McCormick spent most of his time on the campaign trail visiting communities across the state that had “a cumulative effect that was very, very significant.”
“I think he showed us the way to win really, really tough challenges,” he said.
The former investment manager and national security advisor hasn’t been immune to criticism, however. Casey often criticized his Chinese business dealings while leading Bridgewater Associates and blamed Republicans for blocking a border security bill in Congress that would have prevented the illegal crossings he campaigns against.
“I don’t know why he wouldn’t support that,” Casey said during a recent debate. “It doesn’t make any sense when he knows that we could advance the ball based upon the expertise of the border patrol.”
Immigration, along with inflation and abortion access, were the top three most important issues to voters in this election cycle, according to recent polling from The Center Square.
With some rural votes outstanding, Gerow felt confident McCormick would eventually win the race. The victory, however, can’t be attributed alone to the former president’s outsized influence down the ballot, Gerow clarified.
“Certainly, Donald Trump helped, but Dave McCormick really helped himself,” he said.
Earlier Wednesday, Casey’s campaign told multiple media outlets that Philadelphia and other populated counties still had uncounted votes. As of publication, he’s not conceded.
