McCormick Wins PA U.S. Senate Seat: Associated Press

PENNSYLVANIA — The Associated Press on Thursday declared Republican Dave McCormick the winner over incumbent Bob Casey in the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate Race.

According to the Pennsylvania Department of State website, as of Thursday afternoon McCormick had 3,340,611 votes to Casey's 3,308,681 votes. McCormick leads Casey 48.95 percent to 48.48 percent.

The roughly half-percentage point difference in the tallies qualifies the race for an automatic recount.

Casey had an early lead just after the polls closed Tuesday, but McCormick overtook him shortly before midnight with about 80 percent of the estimated votes counted. McCormick's lead has dwindled then as outstanding votes continue to be counted.

NBC News on Thursday morning reported there are an estimated 183,000 votes that still need to be counted.

Casey, 64, won his U.S. Senate seat in 2006. He served as state treasurer and auditor general prior to that. His father, Robert Casey, served as Pennsylvania governor in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

McCcormick, 59, who headed the Bridgewater Capital hedge fund from 2017-22, is making his second bid for a Senate seat. He ran in 2022, but was defeated in the Republican primary by celebrity physician Mehmet Oz. John Fetterman bested Oz in the general election to grab the seat.