Pennsylvania
Casey urges patience in vote-counting for Pa. U.S. Senate race as McCormick returns to Connecticut • Pennsylvania Capital-Star
After the Associated Press called the race in his favor, GOP U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick gave a victory speech in Pittsburgh on Friday, thanking incumbent Sen. Bob Casey for his service to Pennsylvania and urging him to concede.
“I also recognize what it’s like to lose a close election,” McCormick said Friday, pointing to Pennsylvania’s 2022 GOP U.S. Senate primary, where he lost to Mehmet Oz by less than 1,000 votes. “We knew on election night we had won, because the math was clear and there’s no way for Senator Casey to win, and the AP certainly recognized that yesterday by calling the race.”
But on Saturday morning, as ballots continued to be counted that could determine whether he would be Pennsylvania’s next U.S. Senator, McCormick flew to Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Casey hammered McCormick for his Connecticut connection throughout the campaign, repeatedly pointing to an August 2023 AP article which maintained that the former hedge fund CEO continued to live in Connecticut even as he sought to represent the people of Pennsylvania.
Flight records show a private plane previously connected to McCormick left Pittsburgh the morning of Nov. 9 bound for Bridgeport. As Vanity Fair reported last year, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) records show McCormick is part owner of four Platius PC-12 planes as part of PlaneSense’s PC-12 fractional ownership program. PlaneSense provides people who purchase one of its planes access to a fleet of private planes.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in March that after launching a statewide bus tour of Pennsylvania, where he said he would “live on the bus” McCormick flew back to Connecticut that same day. McCormick has said that the reason he travels to Connecticut is because his youngest daughter from a previous marriage lives there, and he visits frequently.
Elizabeth Gregory, communications director for the McCormick campaign said in a social media post Sunday that McCormick “went to his daughter’s soccer game — the first he was able to make it to this season. Like her dad, she won! Dave was back in PA that night. Please stop with this unseemly desperation.”
The Associated Press, which calculates election outcomes based on a number of factors, including votes remaining, called the race for McCormick on Thursday. But the Pennsylvania Secretary of State noted not long afterward that there were “at least 100,000 ballots remaining to be adjudicated, including provisional, military, overseas, and Election Day votes.” And Casey has not conceded.
“I have dedicated my life to making sure Pennsylvanians’ voices are heard, whether on the floor of the Senate or in a free and fair election,” Casey said in a statement Thursday evening. “It has been made clear there are more than 100,000 votes still to be counted. Pennsylvania is where our democratic process was born. We must allow that process to play out and ensure that every vote that is eligible to be counted will be counted. That is what Pennsylvania deserves.”
PBS NewsHour correspondent Lisa Desjardins reported Friday that the AP told her it had “estimated 109,000 ballots were still outstanding. Up from 91,000 the day before. That is – they stress and I stress – an estimate. And they adjust it as they get more information.”
In a post from its “decision team” on Friday, the AP said “McCormick’s lead grew on Friday as more Election Day votes were added to the count in Republican-leaning Cambria County and some smaller counties completed the process of assessing and adding provisional ballots to the count. That lead may shrink over the coming days, however, as provisional ballots from more Democratic-leaning areas are reviewed by election officials.”
Other news outlets, including DecisionDesk HQ and NBC News, have not yet called the race as of Sunday morning.
And, when the tally is calculated, if the margin of votes is 0.5% or lower, it would trigger a recount under Pennsylvania law.
On Friday in Philadelphia, the same day McCormick held his victory rally in Pittsburgh, a Common Pleas Court judge rejected McCormick’s request to increase the number of GOP observers in the counting of provisional ballots. McCormick withdrew a second lawsuit seeking a “global challenge” to provisional ballots.
“Each day, counties across the Commonwealth are confirming there are more ballots that need to be counted,” Casey campaign spokesperson Maddy McDaniel said in a statement. “We know there are more than 100,000 ballots left to be counted including tens of thousands of provisional ballots in counties favorable to Senator Casey, and the McCormick campaign has acknowledged these provisional ballots could impact the outcome of the election while pursuing unsuccessful lawsuits to get them thrown out. Pennsylvanians deserve to have their voices heard, and as state officials have made clear, counties across Pennsylvania need more time to tabulate remaining votes.”
As of Sunday, unofficial results showed Casey with 3,330,514 votes, or 48.43%, to McCormick’s 3,370,659 or 49.01%.
This article was updated Nov. 10, 2024 at 12:18 p.m. with a comment from the McCormick campaign
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.
New moms now have more support with the statewide expansion of a mom-to-mom texting program through a nonprofit called NurturePA.
Six thousand moms in Allegheny County have used the free service since NurturePA started it in 2014. It’s now open to anyone in Pennsylvania who’s pregnant or caring for a child up to age five. Trained mentors, who are moms themselves, are paired with a new mom for anonymous, nonjudgmental texting support.
Sharon Welburn used the service with her firstborn child and loved having someone to vent to and learn from.
“I didn’t realize how common jaundice in babies was until my baby was jaundiced,” Welburn said. “I was panicking that I did something wrong, and then my mentor texted, ‘You’re OK. You’re not doing anything wrong. It’s something that sometimes happens. My kid had jaundice when they were born.’”
The trained mentors screen for postpartum depression eight times in the first year after the baby is born. NurturePA Executive Director Susan Crookston says the service is especially ideal for moms in rural areas who are further from support networks. She says for many new moms, having a baby can feel disorienting because so much changes.
“New baby, new everything,” Crookston said. “Your body is different … Every element of your life can be upended by a baby, and though it’s a wonderful and joyous experience, it’s also incredibly challenging.”
Nurture PA is also collecting parenting wisdom from moms across Pennsylvania to be shared across their platforms and in an art exhibit.
To share your words of wisdom or enroll in the free mom-to-mom texting service as a new mom or a mentor, go to the NurturePA website. And for more advice and local resources for new parents, go to Kidsburgh.org.
KDKA is proud to partner with kidsburgh.org.
A man died after the vehicle he was working on fell off jack stands in Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, officials said.
Gage Alexander Rowe died on Monday afternoon following the fatal accident in a garage in Warsaw Township, CBS affiliate WTAJ reported.
Citing Jefferson County Coroner Greg Furlong, the news outlet reported that first responders were called to the garage on Milliron Road around 2 p.m. on Monday. Investigators reportedly said the 25-year-old man was working underneath a vehicle when the jacks holding up the vehicle gave out, killing him.
First responders were called to the home after family members became concerned when Rowe didn’t arrive at a gathering and was unreachable by phone, WTAJ reported.
The 25-year-old man’s cause of death was blunt force trauma, and it was ruled accidental. Authorities did not release any additional information.
An investigation is underway after a person’s body was found in a burned out vehicle on Tuesday, according to the Berks County Coroner’s Office.
Authorities were called to the 400 block of Friedensburg Road in Oley, Pennsylvania, around 9:43 a.m. on Tuesday, May 26 for reports of a van on fire, officials said.
Once the fire was put out, officials reported finding a person’s body in the back of the van so the Berks County Coroner was called to the scene.
The person has not yet been identified but an autopsy is scheduled for Thursday, May 28 to help authorities uncover more information.
The investigation into this case is ongoing.
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