Pennsylvania’s hotly contested Senate race is deadlocked nearly a week after Election Day, with Republicans declaring victory and Democrats hoping the remaining ballots will allow them to close the gap.

NBC News has not yet projected a winner in the contest between Democratic Sen. Bob Casey and Republican Dave McCormick, which are separated by just over 40,000 votes with 98% of the expected votes. An estimated 122,000 ballots have yet to be counted.

McCormick declared victory Thursday, after the Associated Press called the race in his favor. Since then, he and his GOP allies in Washington have stepped up pressure on Casey to concede, arguing that he has no path to victory.

“The AP called this race a few days ago because, mathematically, Senator Casey has no way to win,” McCormick said in a Fox News interview on Sunday. “Ultimately, Senator Casey will have to decide when he is ready to concede. this,” he added.

Casey’s campaign argued that the remaining number of expected provisional ballots, particularly from places like Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs, could tip the balance in his favor.

Maddy McDaniel, a spokeswoman for Casey, who is in his third term, said in a statement Saturday that each day the counties are “confirming that there are more ballots that need to be counted.”

“Pennsylvanians deserve to have their voices heard, and as state officials have made clear, Pennsylvania counties need more time to register their remaining votes,” she said.

A McCormick win would be more The new Republican majority in the Senatewhere they will hold at least 52 seats after the election. The size of the majority could play a big role in how much of President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda passes as well how many of his nominees will be confirmed.

But even before the new Congress is sworn in next January, the outcome of the Pennsylvania race could have implications for Elections for the leadership of the Senate Wednesday.

Three Republicans are vying to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky as party leader, and senators-elect can vote.

With no clear winner in Pennsylvania yet, however, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., expects to invite McCormick or Casey to Congress this week for orientation and a vote on Wednesday — a move that has angered Republicans .

Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, who is running to be GOP leader, said on X that “the idea that Schumer would not allow him to attend Senate orientation is beyond unacceptable.”

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., called Schumer’s decision to drop McCormick’s invitation a “disgraceful, election-denying decision” in a post on X.

A spokesman for Schumer defended the decision, pointing to the number of ballots that have not yet been counted in Pennsylvania.

“With more than 100,000 ballots left to be counted in Pennsylvania, the race has not been decided,” said spokesman Alex Nguyen. “As is the custom, we will invite the winner after the votes are counted.”

Similarly, Arizona Democratic Senate candidate Ruben Gallego was not invited to the orientation because his race against Republican Kari Lake is too close to call. according to an NBC News projection. He leads by 2 percentage points with 91% of the expected vote.

Provisional ballots have been a contentious issue in Pennsylvania even before Election Day. Pennsylvanians can vote provisionally when officials are unclear about their eligibility or there have been problems with mail-in ballots returned. In the days after the election, officials work to determine whether such voters are eligible to vote and, if so, their votes will be counted.

In the days before election day, US Supreme Court decided to allow Pennsylvania voters who submitted mail-in ballots that were flagged as potentially defective to submit separate in-person provisional ballots, rejecting a lawsuit from Republicans.

McCormick’s campaign filed two lawsuits Friday challenging about 15,000 to 20,000 provisional ballots in Philadelphia that may have problems, such as missing signatures. Philadelphia is a deep blue area, and the results in the county so far have tilted heavily in Casey’s favor.

The court dismissed the matter for now.

As of Sunday, the Casey campaign remained optimistic about overcoming the vote deficit, indicating about 76% of provisional ballots which favored Democrat John Fetterman over Republican Mehmet Oz in 2022.

“We don’t think we need to get to the percentage breakdown of Fetterman to win. Furthermore, there are thousands of ballots that support Casey that are healed,” said a person close to the Casey campaign, referring to the processing . of addressing minor errors on postal ballots such as signature issues.

At the presidential level, NBC News projected that Trump won Pennsylvania. He leads Vice President Kamala Harris by about 2 percentage points.