Election Night was a good night to be a Democrat in Pennsylvania.
In the hotly contested U.S. Senate race, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman was projected as the winner in the 1:00 a.m hour Wednesday over Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz, buoyed by better-than-expected results in rural counties, especially across western Pennsylvania.
Tuesday morning, Oz conceded, saying “we are facing big problems as a country and we need everyone to put down their partisan swords and focus on getting the job done.”
In the governor’s race, there’s been no concession yet, despite projections late last night that Republican State Sen. Doug Mastriano had lost to Attorney General Josh Shapiro.
In local races, while Republicans won where expected, two toss-up state house races went blue.
Paul Takac defeated Justin Behrens in the newly created 82nd District in Centre County. Frank Burns, the only Democrat outside Centre County in our viewing area holding a legislative seat, won re-election in a bitter race against Renae Billow in the redrawn 72nd District in what’s become ruby-red Cambria County.
Republicans had been projecting a red wave across the country and needed Pennsylvania to meet that goal.
Instead, Pennsylvania proved to be a sign that the wave was more of a whimper.
