Senator Bob Casey, a three-term Democrat from Pennsylvania long seen as an institution in state politics, was defeated on Thursday by his Republican challenger, the former hedge-fund executive David McCormick, in a stunning upset in one of the nation’s top Senate races.
Mr. Casey conceded on Thursday shortly before The New York Times called the race for Mr. McCormick, whose lead of less than half a percentage point had triggered a recount. As Republicans looked to add Pennsylvania to their win column after seizing control of the Senate, the post-election period set off a legal battle between the two sides.
“This race was one of the closest in our commonwealth’s history,” Mr. Casey said in a statement. “I am grateful to the thousands of people who worked to make sure every eligible vote cast could be counted.”
In his second time running for Senate in Pennsylvania, Mr. McCormick channeled the sour national mood into a victory over a well-established incumbent in a top battleground state. Republicans will now hold a 53-to-47 advantage in the Senate in addition to narrowly controlling the House, giving President-elect Donald J. Trump more flexibility to pursue his agenda.
Perhaps no electoral outcome this year better illustrates the Democratic Party’s challenges with white working-class voters than Mr. Casey’s defeat.
Mr. Casey, a mild-mannered Scranton native and longtime close ally of President Biden’s — as well as an early supporter of former President Barack Obama’s — is the son of a popular former governor of Pennsylvania. His family name has long been synonymous with conservative Democrats even as those voters have shifted hard against the party in the Trump era.
Mr. Casey’s loss was all the more surprising because he had been seen as one of his party’s strongest incumbents, and Democrats in several other tough races — in Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada — managed to prevail.
He ran as a populist, lashing big corporations for what he called “greedflation” and promising to fight for middle- and working-class Americans.
But he faced gale-force headwinds as the presidential race reached its conclusion, and Pennsylvania proved especially difficult for the Democratic Party in federal races this year. Mr. Trump won the state, and Republicans flipped two House seats.
Mr. McCormick, a West Point graduate who lost the G.O.P. Senate primary race in 2022, found his footing in seeking to tie Mr. Casey to Vice President Kamala Harris. He zeroed in on her past support for banning fracking, even though she no longer holds that view and Mr. Casey opposes fracking bans.
Mr. McCormick, whose wife, Dina Powell McCormick, served in Mr. Trump’s administration, did not shy away from appearing with the former president. But he also held events with more traditional Republicans, like Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and presidential candidate. And he tried to make inroads in the moderate Philadelphia suburbs that have recoiled from the Trump-led Republican Party.
In a statement on Thursday, Mr. McCormick said Mr. Casey had “dedicated his career to bettering our commonwealth,” and he thanked the Casey family before sounding a triumphant note.
“I am so honored to represent every single citizen in Pennsylvania in the United States Senate and will fight for you every day,” he said.
Mr. Casey is beloved among many Pennsylvania Democrats, and he won his previous Senate bids by significant margins: 13 percentage points in 2018, nine points in 2012 and 17 percentage points in 2006. That year he ousted Senator Rick Santorum, a Republican, running at the time as a socially conservative Democrat, though he later moderated those views.
“It feels like an end of an era,” said former Representative Patrick Murphy, a Pennsylvania Democrat. “He’s been an incredible champion for working families, so it’s definitely a solemn moment.”
Throughout this year’s race, Democrats believed Mr. McCormick had significant political liabilities.
They used conservative positions that he had taken during his 2022 primary against him, especially on abortion rights, an issue he tried to mitigate by emphasizing his opposition to a national abortion ban.
Democrats also cast him as a rich man who was out of touch with the needs of working people. He faced scrutiny of his business record and questions about his residency: The Associated Press reported in 2023 that while he owned a home in Pittsburgh, public records showed that he still lived in and rented a $16 million mansion in Westport, Conn.
And while Mr. McCormick had repeatedly claimed that he grew up on a family farm, The Times reported that he had given a misleading impression about key aspects of his upbringing.
But Mr. McCormick, portraying Mr. Casey as an ineffectual career politician who had been in Washington too long, was able to tap into deep frustration with the Democratic White House and Senate to claim the mantle of change.
“I want to thank the people of Pennsylvania for granting me the privilege of serving them for 28 consecutive years in public office,” Mr. Casey said in his statement, invoking his long career in public life. “Thank you for the trust you have placed in me for all these years.”
Senator John Fetterman, the Democrat who holds Pennsylvania’s other Senate seat, released a notably raw statement.
“This hits me,” he said. “Bob Casey was, is and always will be Pennsylvania’s best senator.”
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