IT’S OFFICIAL

All election challenges withdrawn in 18th Congressional District

Post-Gazette Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — All ballot challenges have been dropped in the 18th Congressional District special election, clearing the way for election officials to certify results April 2 and making Democrat Conor Lamb’s victory official.

Hearings had been scheduled for Friday morning, but challenges were withdrawn Thursday, a day after Republican Rick Saccone conceded in a phone call that Mr. Lamb described as gracious. The Allegheny County Board of Elections still expects to convene Friday to open and count provisional ballots and add them to vote totals, said county spokeswoman Amie Downs.

As of Wednesday, Mr. Lamb was more than 600 votes ahead of Mr. Saccone and had already declared himself the victor, although vote tallies weren’t yet final.

Mr. Lamb will represent parts of Allegheny, Greene, Westmoreland and Washington counties through the end of this year. He then plans to run in the May primary for the newly redrawn 17th District.

Mr. Saccone, meanwhile, is planning to run in the newly drawn 14th District.

Mr. Lamb is already settling into Washington, where he attended meetings Thursday. One was with the executive council of the AFLCIO, where he was in familiar company. Pittsburgh native Richard Trumka is national president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.