Democratic candidate Conor Lamb has claimed an extremely narrow victory in Pennsylvania’s 18th District special election held yesterday, in a district Donald Trump won by 20 points in the 2016 presidential election.
With 99.9% of the vote counted at midnight local time, Lamb held a very slim lead over GOP rival Rick Saccone, 49.9% to 49.5% – a difference of just 579 votes with more than 225,000 ballots cast.
“Tonight we celebrate regaining our voice and our vote in the great business of governing this country we love,” Lamb told supporters.
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Officials are working to finalise the counting of 1,398 outstanding absentee ballots, which commentators say make it “mathematically possible but highly unlikely” for Saccone to make up the difference.
Saccone’s campaign and the National Republican Committee have announced that they have no intention of conceding for now.
Regardless of who is declared the winner, the result “is expected to raise Democratic hopes of taking back the House in November's midterm elections”, Fox News says.
CNN’s Eric Bradner said Republicans should be “very, very worried”, and that the result is an “ominous sign for the midterms.”
The surge in popularity for the Democrats in the election came despite Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner making several trips to the state to campaign for Saccone.
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