HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Republican Rick Saccone conceded defeat to Democrat Conor Lamb on Wednesday night in a Pennsylvania special election, more than a week after the end of a race that has tempered GOP confidence ahead of the midterm elections.
Lamb, 33, claimed the seat by about 750 votes in a Republican-held district that President Donald Trump won by almost 20 percentage points just 16 months ago. Lamb, who struck a moderate tone during the race for the U.S. House of Representatives seat and was backed by the congressional district's influential labor unions, beat Saccone, a state lawmaker who had compiled one of the most conservative voting records in Pennsylvania's Legislature.
Lamb also benefited from what Pittsburgh-area Democrats called the party's most energized electorate they had ever seen, driven by an anti-Trump fervor.
On Twitter, Lamb said he had just gotten off the phone with Saccone and congratulated him "for a close, hard-fought race." In a statement, Saccone said that while fewer than 800 votes separated them, the people of the 18th District "deserve to have a voice representing them in Congress."
Republicans considered seeking a recount or filing a lawsuit to contest the result, even as vote-counting over the past week continued to add to Lamb's lead. Local and national party officials said Wednesday night that they were dropping any such plans in light of Saccone's concession.
The seat became available in October after eight-term Republican Rep. Tim Murphy resigned over a scandal in which it emerged that the anti-abortion lawmaker had asked a woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair to get an abortion when he thought she might be pregnant.
Locally, the outcome has a short-term effect.
The district is dissolving under a court-ordered redraw of Pennsylvania's 18 congressional districts, leaving Lamb to seek the nomination to challenge a three-term Republican Rep. Keith Rothfus in a newly drawn district west of Pittsburgh that is considered a toss-up.
A Section on 03/22/2018