Casey still ‘confident’ despite trailing in Pa. Senate race

Incumbent U.S. Sen. Bob Casey is not ready to give up his seat just yet, even as the margin of votes show the three-term senator trailing behind newcomer GOP candidate David McCormick in his re-election bid.

Casey’s campaign released this statement via email just before 10:00 a.m. Wednesday, signaling the senator is not ready to concede and will wait on votes from Philadelphia to be counted.

“There are more votes that need to be counted in areas like Philadelphia and it’s important that every legal ballot will be counted. When that happens we are confident the Senator will be re-elected,” the statement read.

Casey left his campaign party at the Scranton Cultural Center on election night hours before Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti told supporters to go home.

“It’s been a long campaign and some long days of door knocking,” Cognetti said to the sparse crowd still in attendance. “Tonight is a long night and I think we have another long day ahead of us tomorrow, we are confident that when all the votes are counted Sen. Casey will be back in D.C. fighting for us.”

One supporter could be heard voicing her concerns over the tight race and described the mood as “somber” and “disappointing.”

After hours of waiting, Casey left as the polls showed McCormick with a less than 1% lead.

“We are going to re-elect Sen. Casey, but we’re not going to be able to call that tonight,” Cognetti told the remaining dozen of supporters. “Tomorrow we’ll hopefully get a result, but we need to set expectations. This could take a couple days.”

As of mid-morning Wednesday, the vote count shows McCormick holding a thin lead with 49.1% of the votes across the commonwealth compared to Casey’s 48.3%.