No concession for Casey in Pennsylvania, yet

(The Center Square) – Pennsylvania’s incumbent U.S. senator just isn’t ready to let go.

Bob Casey Jr., denied a third term in Washington by voters exactly a week ago, still hasn’t conceded the race to Republican challenger Dave McCormick, even as the former hedge fund manager heads to Capitol Hill for orientation.

In a video posted to X on Tuesday morning, Casey said election workers are still counting some of the nearly 7 million votes cast on Nov. 5, a similar refrain he’s repeated every day since.

“The American democratic process was born in Pennsylvania and that process will play out,” he said.

As of Tuesday morning, 0.5 percentage points, or roughly 34,000 votes, separate the candidates, state data shows. McCormick’s lead is just within the margin of recount territory, though it’s expanded by about 3,000 votes over the weekend.

Secretary of State Al Schmidt must call for a recount by Thursday. Election workers must complete the process by noon the following Tuesday.

The Associated Press joined multiple media outlets in calling the race for McCormick on Thursday, over the protests of the Casey campaign.

The news organization, long considered the standard bearer of calling election results, defended its methodology for calling the race. Like President-elect Donald Trump, said AP reporter Mike Catalini, McCormick cut into Casey’s margins in purple counties and Democratic bastions across the state. Of the estimated 91,000 ballots uncounted on Friday, Catalini said Casey could not make up enough ground to overtake McCormick.

In a victory speech given Friday, McCormick recognized the Casey family’s political legacy in Pennsylvania, starting with the senator’s own father, former Gov. Bob Casey. The elder Casey served as a state senator in the 1960s and auditor general in the 1980s before leading the commonwealth from 1987 to 1995.

“But Senator Casey is going to have to work through this, and so I wish him the best and his family the best and thank them for their service,” McCormick said. “But we’ve got to move on to changing the direction of the country, and this is an incredibly important week, right?”

The former governor was also a staunch anti-abortion advocate whose signature on amendments to 1982 Abortion Control Act triggered a lawsuit from Planned Parenthood, which claimed it violated the constitutional right established in Roe v. Wade.

In 1992, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld most of the new limits in the law – including parental consent for minors and a 24-hour waiting period – setting a new precedent for abortion laws across the country.

The elder Casey faced a lot of criticism from his party in the wake of the ruling, though his position did not waver. The younger Casey likewise carried the mantle of anti-abortion Democrat during his first two terms in the U.S. Senate, where he voted in favor a Republican-backed 20-week abortion ban.

Since the high court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Casey has since expressed support for codifying abortion rights at the national level.

McCormick has said he will not support a nationwide abortion ban, as has been posited by Democratic critics wary of Republican preference for limiting access to the procedure.