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The vote-counting stretched into Wednesday morning in Pennsylvania, where Democrat Conor Lamb narrowly leads Republican Rick Saccone in a congressional district that President Donald Trump
carried by 20 points. Our own Clint Hendler spent Tuesday evening at the Hilton Garden Inn in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, where Lamb supporters gathered to watch the results. Check out live
coverage from him and others below.
Most news outlets are still saying the race is to close to call, but Lamb declared victory early Wednesday morning. “It took a little longer than we thought,” he told cheering supporters.
“But we did it.”
As the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Wednesday morning, Lamb’s lead does appear to be holding, for now:
With 100 percent of the vote count in, Mr. Lamb was ahead by more than 600 votes. However, absentee and provisional ballots were still being counted overnight. Washington County finished
tallying early Wednesday morning, showing Lamb with 609 votes and Saccone, 547.
If the race is still too close to call after the absentee ballots are counted, voters or candidates could call for a recount or recanvass of votes, but the process is onerous. Voters have
until officials are done with the computation of the votes on Friday to file a challenge with their county Board of Elections. The computation includes the counting of absentee ballots.
As of 11:40 pm ET, the race was still too close to call, with Lamb clinging to a lead of fewer than 900 votes. The AP has said it won’t be projecting a winner tonight:
— Stephen Ohlemacher (@stephenatap) March 14, 2018
Update 8
— bill peduto (@billpeduto) March 14, 2018
— Clint Hendler (@clinthendler) March 14, 2018
But are they playing “Fight Song,” Clint?
Bad news for anyone following the infamous New York Times needle. But the good news is that Clint’s tweets will be unaffected.
— Nate Cohn (@Nate_Cohn) March 14, 2018
Wasserman points to the same issue with the way results are being reported. Looks like we’ll just have to wait for them to count the actual votes.
— Clint Hendler (@clinthendler) March 14, 2018
Meanwhile, Lamb supporters are still seem confident:
The New York Times’ Nate Cohn says we could be in for a late night:
Here’s some more early data from the Cook Political Report’s Dave Wasserman:
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) March 14, 2018
2016: Clinton (D) +9.2%2018: Lamb (D) +30.2%
Lamb is exceeding what he needs in Allegheny. Need to see more of #PA18…
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) March 14, 2018
That mirrors 2017 specials and it's pretty ominous for Saccone (R). #PA18
— Clint Hendler (@clinthendler) March 14, 2018
— Clint Hendler (@clinthendler) March 14, 2018
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) March 14, 2018
Original Post:
— Clint Hendler (@clinthendler) March 13, 2018
— Clint Hendler (@clinthendler) March 13, 2018
— Clint Hendler (@clinthendler) March 13, 2018
— Clint Hendler (@clinthendler) March 14, 2018
— Clint Hendler (@clinthendler) March 14, 2018
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