Fetterman defends Casey-McCormick recount as challenger’s team says 'zero' path for Democrat

Shortly after Republican Sen.-elect David McCormick’s team held a call with reporters attesting that Democratic Sen. Bob Casey Jr. has no mathematical path to victory, Pennsylvania’s other senator defended the commonwealth’s automatic recount.

"That’s the law," Sen. John Fetterman, D–Pa., told Fox News Digital, as the state stipulates a race within 0.5% triggers a recount.

When asked whether Casey should have conceded after the race was called in McCormick’s favor, Fetterman said it’s hard to believe it could be controversial to "count every vote."

"Then, when the [recount] law is triggered by the conditions, and they follow the law, that's what happened. Otherwise, arguing the hard right [view]."

Fetterman said Republicans are making the opposite case in Wisconsin.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) wears an enlarged cutout of the face of Sen. Bob Casey Jr (D-PA) at the Capitol on Sept. 12, 2023. (Reuters)

Eric Hovde, the GOP candidate in Wisconsin, originally floated seeking a recount against Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat, according to CBS News, but later told a radio program he would concede.

"What about that special Kari Lake? Do you think she's all, you know . . . ." Fetterman asked. "Let’s talk about where we are at in Pennsylvania. Count every vote, and now there’s a recount because that’s the law – that’s not an opinion, that’s a fact."

Asked whether Hovde and Lake should concede, Fetterman quipped, "I promise you, Kari Lake doesn’t care what I think, but she has to find a new job."

In a call earlier this week with reporters, lawyers for the McCormick campaign said the maximum ballot universe left is around 80,000 according to state officials, but that they personally estimated the number to be closer to 30,000.

Applying a 77% average ballot validity in 66 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties – not including Philadelphia – there is no path for Casey, they said.

Philadelphia County had zero non-adjudicated ballots left as of Wednesday, and the more blue-collar counties of the city – plus Allegheny in the west, where Pittsburgh is located – are almost finished tabulating.

A Pennsylvania welcome sign greets drivers on US-222 entering Peach Bottom, Pa., from Maryland, 2022. (Charlie Creitz)

"There is zero mathematical or statistical reason that they have a path to victory here," a campaign official said on the call.

The campaign, along with the greater Republican Party apparatus, is now vociferously objecting to the actions of several county boards of elections that have either expressed an intention or have already voted to tally undated mail-in ballots.

Such a move would flout a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision ruling that the process should never happen.

The McCormick representatives mentioned Philadelphia, Bucks, Montgomery and Centre counties – which are all blue and suburban, except the latter, which trends Democratic due to Penn State University – in their tabulation of jurisdictions where there have been mumbles of counting such ballots.

A representative also remarked that there does not seem to be an interest in counting undated ballots in Washington County or Cambria County, both of which are heavily Republican.

On Thursday, the PAGOP and RNC sued all 67 county boards of election to head off any counting of undated ballots and separately petitioned the 5-2 Democratic-majority Supreme Court to step in.

McCormick (Ed Jones/AFP via Getty)

"While Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick currently holds an insurmountable lead of nearly 30,000 votes over his Democrat opponent Bob Casey, numerous County Boards of Elections including Philadelphia, Bucks, Centre and potentially others took an impromptu vote to count undated or improperly dated mail-in ballots, in bold defiance of Pennsylvania law, and two State Supreme Court orders," PAGOP chairman Lawrence Tabas said in a statement.

With 99% of precincts reporting Thursday, McCormick leads Casey by 3.384 million to 3.367 million votes, or a difference of about 0.4%.

Julia Johnson is a politics writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business, leading coverage of the U.S. Senate. She was previously a politics reporter at the Washington Examiner. 

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