HARRISBURG, Pa. (WPVI) — Republican Dave McCormick has declared victory over Democratic Sen. Bob Casey in the pivotal US Senate seat of Pennsylvania. The Associated Press called the race for McCormick on Thursday, but ABC News has not yet projected a winner.

There are “at least” 100,000 votes still outstanding, Secretary of State Al Schmidt said Thursday night. According to Schmidt, that number includes “provisional, military, overseas and election day votes.”

“We urge patience as poll workers continue to do this important work, especially in contests where the margins are very close,” he said.

McCormick filed a lawsuit Friday in Philadelphia challenging the thousands of provisional ballots that city election officials began counting earlier in the morning.

As of Friday, McCormick led Casey by about 34,000 votes.

The Republican spoke in Pittsburgh on Friday for the first time since declaring victory.

“There is no way Senator Casey is going to override my leadership,” McCormick said.

McCormick said he is not trying to throw out any of the votes that are still being counted.

Senator Bob Casey has yet to admit.

In a statement, Casey’s campaign said the race is still too close to call because of the thousands of ballots still to be counted.

“The number of provisional ballots expected in areas that favor Senator Casey, such as Philadelphia and its suburbs, is further evidence that this race is too close to call. As the McCormick campaign acknowledged in its own lawsuit this morning, counting those ballots. could have “an impact on the outcome of the election”. With more than 100,000 ballots left to count, we will continue to make sure the voices of Pennsylvanians are heard,” the Casey campaign said in a statement.

In a statement earlier this afternoon, Elizabeth Gregory, McCormick’s director of communications, said in a statement: “As the votes continue to be counted, any way you slice them, Dave McCormick will be the next United States Senator from Pennsylvania”.

Casey, perhaps Pennsylvania’s best-known politician and the son of a former two-term governor, is seeking a fourth term after facing what he called his toughest re-election challenge yet.

Casey, 64, is a stalwart of the state Democratic Party who has won six statewide elections since 1996, including as state auditor general and treasurer.

McCormick, 59, is making his second bid for the Senate after losing to Dr. Mehmet Oz in the 2022 Republican primary. He left his job as CEO of the world’s largest hedge fund to was running after serving at the highest levels of former President George W. Bush’s administration and serving on Trump’s Defense Advisory Council.

The race ran on national issues, from abortion rights to inflation. But he also turned on local ones, such as Casey’s accusation that McCormick is a rich carpetbagger from Connecticut’s posh “Gold Coast”—a caricature McCormick helped bring to life by mispronouncing the name of one of local Pennsylvania beers – trying to buy Pennsylvania beers. Senate seat.

Casey also attacked McCormick’s hedge fund days, accusing him of enriching himself at America’s expense by investing in Chinese companies that make fentanyl and build Beijing’s military.

McCormick, for his part, emphasized his seventh-generation Pennsylvania roots, talked about his high school days wrestling in northern Pennsylvania towns — a sport that took him to the U.S. military academy at West Point — and the time ran online auction house FreeMarkets Inc. ., who had his name on a Pittsburgh skyscraper during the tech boom.

Casey, a staunch ally of unions and President Joe Biden has campaigned to preserve the middle class, abortion rights, labor rights and voting rights, calling McCormick and President-elect Donald Trump a threat to all of them.

McCormick, in turn, accused Casey of rubber-stamping the Biden administration’s policies on the border, the economy, energy and national security, which he blames for inflation, domestic unrest and war. He attacked Casey as a weak, out-of-touch career politician and a sure bet that she would be in line with Vice President Kamala Harris if she became president.

Should McCormick win, he would be part of the red wave responsible for winning the US Senate.

David Barrett, a political science professor at Villanova, talked about the impact that Republicans took control of the Senate.

“The real bottom line is that a determined president who wants to do things can very likely do those things if he has strong support if he has a House and a Senate of his political party,” Barrett explained.

He also said he’s not surprised by how close the race is, pointing to polls that have predicted it as well as advertising.

“I saw a lot of McCormick ads that really savaged Senator Casey, and I felt like Casey didn’t respond in kind enough,” Barrett said.

The race could lead to a recount if it is decided by half a percentage point or less.