March 13, 2018

Democrat Leads in District Trump Won by 20 Points

Wave?

Republican Rick Saccone at a campaign rally with President Donald TrumpKeith Srakocic/AP

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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.

Update 10

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.

Greene County absentee votes were still out.

[…]

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.

Update 9

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:

Update 8

Not much left to count. Still incredibly close.

But are they playing “Fight Song,” Clint?

Update 7

The race is getting pretty tight:

Update 6

Bad news for anyone following the infamous New York Times needle. But the good news is that Clint’s tweets will be unaffected.

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.

Update 5

Meanwhile, Lamb supporters are still seem confident:

Update 4

Update 3

The New York Times’ Nate Cohn says we could be in for a late night:

Update 2

Here’s some more early data from the Cook Political Report’s Dave Wasserman:

Update 1

Original Post:

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

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