Pressure Mounts for Democrat Bob Casey to Concede Pennsylvania Senate Race to Republican Dave McCormick

Republican senators are calling on Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) to concede Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race to Republican Dave McCormick.

McCormick currently leads Casey by 30,679 votes, 3,336,691 to 3,306,012, with 95 percent of the vote reported, the New York Times’ election results show as of 1:07 p.m. Eastern.

While the Associated Press has yet to call the race, Republicans led by Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) are calling on Casey to acknowledge a McCormick victory.

“Pennsylvania’s going to come home, Joe,” Thune told CNBC’s Squawk Box on Thursday. “I hope that they will call that soon, they should, and Bob Casey should concede there.”

Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Rick Scott (R-FL) also called on Casey to concede the race on Thursday.

“Senator Bob Casey should concede to senator-elect Dave McCormick,” Cotton wrote in a post on X.

McCormick “has won and will be the next Senator for the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Scott wrote in his own post.

“Time for the networks to call it and for [Casey] to accept the results and concede,” he added.

Elizabeth Gregory, McCormick’s communications director, wrote in a statement midday Thursday that McCormick will win.

“While votes continue to be counted, any way you slice it, Dave McCormick will be the next United States Senator from Pennsylvania,” she wrote.

When the race is finally called, McCormick, assuming he wins, will give Republicans at least a 53-seat majority, with two more pickup opportunities still on the table in Arizona and Nevada.

Arizona Republican Kari Lake is running very closely behind Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) with only 69 percent of the votes currently tabulated.

As of midday Thursday, Gallego led 50 percent to 48 percent, or roughly 52,581 votes. Lake is still very much in play here, with so much of the vote yet to be tabulated. Given 2020 and 2022 trends in Arizona’s vote-counting system, it could be days before the answer is clear on who will replace outgoing Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ).

Things are slightly tighter in Nevada between Republican Sam Brown and Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), though a larger percentage of the vote is in compared to Arizona. Rosen leads Brown 47.6 percent to 46.7 percent, just a 12,699-vote difference, with an estimated 90 percent of the vote accounted for.