The photo-finish U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania was over Thursday afternoon, and Republicans were ecstatic.
By a wafer-thin margin of roughly 30,000 votes out of 6.7 million, David McCormick — West Point graduate and former hedge fund CEO — ousted three-term Democrat Sen. Bob Casey.
Their contest is the first time in 30 years a sitting senator from the Keystone State was defeated and the closest Senate contest in the state since popular election of senators began.
But McCormick's win was just the tip of the proverbial iceberg for the Pennsylvania GOP. In all three contests for state constitutional offices, Republicans emerged triumphant.
Incumbent State Treasurer Stacy Garrity and Auditor General Tim DeFoor were comfortably reelected. And in a major upset, York County District Attorney Dave Sunday won the vacant office of state attorney general over former Democrat Auditor General Eugene DePasquale.
Garrity, DeFoor, and Sunday are all considered attractive prospects for higher office.
With the composition of the U.S. House still undecided, Pennsylvania Republicans did their part to bring Mike Johnson closer to another stint as speaker. In the 7th District (Lehigh Valley), Republican state Rep. Ryan MacKenzie unseated two-term Democrat Rep. Susan Wild.
And in the 8th District (northeastern Pennsylvania), Democrat Rep. Matt Cartwright went down after a spirited campaign with electrical company CEO and GOP newcomer Rob Bresnahan.
Control of the state Assembly hung on one seat: the Cambria County contest between incumbent Democrat state Rep. Frank Burns and MAGA Republican Amy Bradley. With all other contests decided, the House was tied with each party holding 101 seats.
"Pennsylvania Republicans had one of the best election cycles in over a decade," Lowman Henry, head of the conservative Lincoln Institute, told Newsmax. "Dave McCormick ran one of the most well-organized, well-funded, and effective U.S. Senate campaigns we have seen in Pennsylvania in many years. Between that and the popularity of Donald Trump, they fed off of each other and produced a tremendous victory."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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