Senate Republicans are feeling optimistic they’ll expand their majority to 53 seats next year as Sen. Bob Casey (D) is trailing Republican David McCormick in Pennsylvania by more than 50,000 votes with 95 percent of the vote counted.
They had a huge night on Tuesday, picking up Sen. Joe Manchin’s (I) seat in West Virginia and knocking off 3rd-term Sens. Sherrod Brown (D) and Jon Tester (D) by comfortable margins in Ohio and Montana to guarantee themselves a 52-seat Senate majority next year.
Now Senate GOP strategists are feeling confident about defeating Casey, who has represented Pennsylvania in the Senate since 2006, as well.
“Pennsylvania is likely R,” said a Senate GOP strategist.
Election officials are still waiting to count about 50,000 ballots in Cambria County, a Republican stronghold, because of scanner malfunctions.
Mark Davin Harris, a consultant to McCormick’s campaign, predicted on the social media platform X that the uncounted 10,000 mail-in ballots from Democratic-leaning Chester County and the uncounted 30,000 mail-in ballots from Philadelphia would not be enough to allow Casey to catch up to McCormick.