Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) weighed in on colleague Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey’s (D) concession in the controversial upper-chamber race on Thursday, praising him as “the best senator in Pennsylvania.”
Fetterman’s reaction came just minutes after Casey, a three-term senator, admitted defeat to Republican rival Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania’s Senate race, which went to a recount.
“This really impacted me,” Fetterman said in a statement on Thursday. “It has been a great honor to have Bob Casey as a colleague, friend, and mentor. His legacy is better than Pennsylvania.”
Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s junior senator, praised Casey’s work in Congress.
“Unpretentious while working for PA for almost two decades, he fought for working Pennsylvanians, unions, rural communities, the elderly, and people with disabilities – all of us,” Fetterman said. “Bob Casey was, is, and will always be the best senator in Pennsylvania.”
Casey’s re-election bid against McCormick, a businessman, went to a recount after the vote totals were within a margin of half a percent.
The Associated Press (AP) declared the victory for the GOP challenger two days after the election. Fetterman criticized the AP for making the call and argued that the news agency “should not make a decision in this race until all Pennsylvanians have counted their votes.”
The Hill’s partner, Decision Desk HQ, declared the victory for McCormick a week ago. In 2022, McCormick lost to Dr. Mehmet Oz in the Senate Republican Party primary in the Keystone State. Oz ended up losing to Fetterman in the general election.
Casey’s concession came a few days after the state began the recount process. Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court issued an order on Monday stating that counties cannot count absentee and mail-in ballots with missing and incorrect dates.
The Democratic incumbent, son of the state’s former popular governor, mentioned that he called McCormick on Thursday “to congratulate him on his election to represent Pennsylvania in the United States Senate.”
“As the first count of ballots is completed, Pennsylvanians can move forward knowing that their voices were heard, whether their vote was the first to be counted or the last,” Casey stated.
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