Democrat leads in Pennsylvania

GOP looks at recount, lawsuit in tight congressional race

MOUNT LEBANON, Pa. — Republicans considered a recount and a lawsuit over perceived irregularities in a U.S. House race in Pennsylvania where Democrat Conor Lamb clung to a slender lead Wednesday in the GOP stronghold friendly to President Donald Trump.

With the last batch of absentee ballots counted, Lamb, a 33-year-old former prosecutor and first-time candidate, saw his edge over Republican Rick Saccone shrink slightly to 627 votes out of more than 224,000 cast, according to unofficial results.

The four counties in the Pittsburgh-area district reported they had about 375 uncounted provisional, military and overseas ballots. They have seven days to count the provisional ballots, and the deadline to receive military and overseas ballots is next Tuesday.

With the margin so close, supporters of either candidate can ask for a recount.

The GOP is considering lodging a recount request, and county officials reported receiving a letter from a law firm requesting that they preserve their records, something the counties say they do anyway under state law.

Separately, Republicans mulled legal action, according to a person familiar with the deliberations. This person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning.

Complaints could include that party lawyers were prevented from observing the counting of some absentee ballots, voting machines erroneously recorded votes from Lamb, and voters were confused by some information from the state elections website.

Officials in Allegheny County, the most populous and Democratic- leaning county in the district, pushed back on Republican claims Wednesday, saying the lawyers had lacked written authorization from the GOP and that they had received no reports Tuesday of malfunctioning voting machines.

The Associated Press said it will not call the race because of the possibility of a recount.

The race is seen nationally as indicator of Democratic enthusiasm and GOP vulnerability heading into the November elections that will determine whether Republicans retain their control of Congress.

Lamb has declared victory. Saccone’s campaign said that Saccone, a 60-year-old Air Force veteran turned state lawmaker and college instructor, had no plans to concede before vote counting was finished. Both men stayed out of sight Wednesday.

Lamb, a Marine veteran, told supporters Tuesday night that voters had directed him to “do your job” in Washington. “Mission accepted,” he said.

From Saccone came words of defiance: “It’s not over yet, we’re going to fight all the way, all the way to the end, we’ll never give up.”

After the absentee vote count wrapped up Wednesday, Saccone gained 14 votes, trimming Lamb’s lead in a district that Trump won by about 20 percentage points in 2016. Analysts, however, said they doubt Saccone will make up the deficit.

“Obviously, this is a very tough environment for Republicans,” said Courtney Alexander, a spokesman for the Congressional Leadership Fund, which supports GOP candidates for the House. “Now more than ever, candidates and campaigns matter.”

House Speaker Paul Ryan privately warned his ranks that the election should serve as a “wake-up call” as the party tries to defend its majorities in Congress this fall.

Democrats must flip 24 GOP-held seats this fall to seize control of the House, and months ago few had counted on the Pennsylvania district to be in play. The seat has been in Republican hands for the past 15 years.

It was open now only because Republican Rep. Tim Murphy, who espoused strong anti-abortion views, resigned last fall over revelations that he had asked a woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair to get an abortion.

Even before a winner was declared, Saccone was making plans to seek the nomination in a different district later this year. A state court has thrown out the state’s congressional map in a gerrymandering case. The current districts have been redrawn, and the new ones will be in play in November. Neither Saccone nor Lamb live in the new southwestern Pennsylvania district.