After months in the crosshairs of presidential campaigns, U.S. Senate candidates and surprisingly well-funded state-office contestants, partisans and swing voters brought the General Election cacophony to a crescendo Tuesday — and greeted Wednesday with the realization that it could be some time before the fever of the 2024 election lifts.
In Pennsylvania, viewed as perhaps the crucial swing state in the contest for 270 Electoral College votes, more than 6 million ballots were cast. By midnight, the Associated Press had not called the state, or the nation, for either Republican Donald Trump, a former president, or Democrat Kamala Harris, the current vice president.
Near midnight, the Associated Press had 230 Electoral College votes in Trump’s column, and 205 in Harris’. The New York Times placed Trump’s chance of winning at 89%.
“Nobody alive today has ever experienced anything like this,” said Dick Jewell, a veteran political fundraiser who spent the evening at the Hickory Heights Country Club victory party for state Sen. Devlin Robinson, R-Bridgeville. “I’ve never seen partisanship so ugly.”
After the elections, said Jewell, 79, of Bridgeville, the country will need “a lot of healing.”
Below the marquee race for president ran a string of contests that will go a long way to determining who sets the agenda in Congress, the state General Assembly and influential state row offices.
Jennie Sweet-Cushman, a political science professor at Chatham University, said the early returns appeared to affirm what polls and prognosticators have said for months: That the election would be decided by a razor-thin margin. In Pennsylvania, she said it appeared that turnout was up for both parties, from liberal-leaning college campuses to conservative rural counties.
If turnout was up in Philadelphia and on campuses, as anecdotal evidence suggested Tuesday, Sweet-Cushman said, “you’d think Harris would be running up some numbers as those counties start reporting. It seems that these red rural counties were running up numbers, too.”
As midnight approached, Republican candidates appeared to be ahead in statewide races. The U.S. Senate race between incumbent Democrat Bob Casey and Republican Dave McCormick, and other contests, had not yet been called.
After the mail-ins, a red rise
Mail-in ballots in Allegheny County were opened and tabulated throughout the day, and most were counted by 3 p.m. The results, heavily favoring Democrats, were released shortly after 8 p.m.
Not long after, the congressional Democrat representing Pittsburgh and eastern suburbs, Summer Lee of Swissvale, was called a winner over Republican James Hayes.
“Still looking out for whether we get a House majority, whether we get a PA House majority, the Senate, the presidency, so: long night,” said Lee, at an election night gathering at TLC Libations in Homewood.
The race for the 17th Congressional District, which includes some Allegheny County suburbs and all of Beaver County, had not yet been called.
The Pennsylvania General Assembly hangs similarly in the balance, with a slight Democratic majority in the House and a slightly more robust Republican margin in the Senate.
Robinson, holding a state Senate district that arcs through Pittsburgh’s suburbs, declared victory before 10:30 p.m. He held off Democrat Nicole Ruscitto.
“I am honored. I am grateful. And I’m ready to continue the fight,” Robinson told his supporters. “It’s a fight for government that serves the people. Not the other way around. It’s a fight to apply the brakes on runaway taxes and enact policies that reduce inflation. It’s a fight for a prosperous economy for working families.”
‘Villain’ or ‘great,’ Trump polarized communities
With partisanship high, pre-election analyses suggested that swing suburbs like Shaler and West Mifflin could tilt the scales one way or another.
In Shaler, John Kindler, 65, said he voted for Trump despite believing the former president was sometimes an “idiot,” because “his policies are great.” Kindler cited the Republican’s support for fuel production, overall economic stewardship and border security emphasis.
“I want the country to be like it used to be,” he said.
At the Skyview Volunteer Fire Company in West Mifflin, voter turnout had reached 2020 levels by evening — quadrupling some off-year totals — with more voters trickling in. Some cited inflation, and reported voting for Trump; others abortion, and Harris.
In Oakland — likely the region’s densest node of first-time voters — excitement was woven with apprehension. Voting was steady in places and lines were long in others, and Harris fans predominated, citing the Democrat’s pro-union stances, diverse background and LGBTQ-friendly planks.
“I’m a gay woman,” said Morgan, 20, who declined to be named. “Being in the society right now, I feel as though Donald Trump is a villain in my story.”
In suburban Robinson, though, concern about border security and public safety drove people like April Hoffman, 46, to Trump.
Much national discussion centered on the Latino electorate. The Pittsburgh neighborhood of Beechview is the hub of that community in the region, and afternoon voting there was relaxed, with no sign of tension between Spanish-speaking voters and MAGA-hat-wearing partisans.
Polling largely uneventful in Allegheny County
Pre-election efforts to alter the voter rolls, paint opponents as extremists and affect turnout with disinformation were mere whisps of cloud on a mostly sunny Election Day.
Posts online alleging that Pennsylvania ballots had arrived already marked for Harris were dismissed as “disinformation” by Sam DeMarco, the Republican Committee of Allegheny County chairman and county council member.
Republican poll watchers and county administrators sparred early about whether observers at the election warehouse could use binoculars to watch the opening of mail-in ballots. In the end, the binoculars were allowed up to a point, but barred when ballot secrecy envelopes were opened.
Presidential process not over
In the run-up to the fiercely contested election, experts warned that a clear, final presidential result may not immediately emerge. That could be especially true if the parties jockey legally over procedures and provisional ballots in swing states, including Pennsylvania.
The states have until Dec. 11 to submit Certificates of Attainment naming their electors, pledged to either Harris or Trump. The Electoral College is set to meet on Dec. 17. A joint session of Congress is to read and count the electoral votes on Jan. 6, and the next president inaugurated Jan. 20.
Charlie Wolfson is PublicSource’s local government reporter and a Report for America corps member. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.
Rich Lord is PublicSource’s managing editor, and can be reached at rich@publicsource.org.
Eric Jankiewicz, Stephanie Strasburg, Evans Toviave and Anastasia Busby contributed.
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