CANONSBURG, Pa. — The closely watched special election race for a congressional seat in western Pennsylvania is still too close to call — but Democrat Conor Lamb, leading by fewer than 700 votes, declared victory here early Wednesday.

The slim margin is an ominous sign for Republicans heading into an increasingly hostile midterm environment. The latest vote count showed Lamb with a tiny lead over Republican Rick Saccone — with a possible recount looming.


The two candidates are neck-and-neck in the vote count: Lamb leads Saccone, 49.8 percent to 49.6 percent, a margin of 627 votes, with all precincts reporting. The Associated Press said Tuesday night it would not declare a winner because the race was so close.

Lamb was introduced as "congressman-elect," and he took the stage shortly before 1 a.m. after a late night of vote-counting. "It took a little longer than we thought, but we did it," he declared to cheering supporters.

National Democrats joined Lamb in claiming victory, even as Republican groups protested it was premature. Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Ben Ray Luján congratulated Lamb on defeating Saccone, adding, "These results should terrify Republicans."

But the National Republican Congressional Committee says it is "ready to ensure that every legal vote is counted," said Matt Gorman, the NRCC communications director. "Once they are, we’re confident Rick Saccone will be the newest Republican member of Congress."

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Saccone, for his part, addressed supporters late Tuesday night at his event in Elizabeth Township, Pennsylvania. "We're not giving up, but I want to come out and thank you," he said, promising them that his campaign was "going to be working late into the night" and into Wednesday.

"We're going to keep fighting," he added. "Don't give up, and we'll keep it up. We're gonna win it!"

Supporters of the trailing candidate can request a recount after all the counties have completed their counts, though there is no automatic recount or recanvass provision.

Saccone's hope of catching Lamb faded early Wednesday morning, as the all four counties that make up the district counted absentee ballots. The current vote count includes more than 3,000 absentee ballots from Allegheny County, the most Democratic-leaning of the four counties that make up the district, and 1,808 from Westmoreland County, a Republican-leaning county. Lamb carried Allegheny County, 57 percent to 42 percent. Saccone won Westmoreland County by a similar margin, 57 percent to 42 percent.

Washington County, a largely rural district, counted its 1,195 absentee ballots early Wednesday morning. But even though Saccone won the Election Day vote in Washington County, 53 percent to 46 percent, Lamb actually netted more votes in the absentees.

There weren't many absentee ballots in rural Greene County, where Saccone netted just over a dozen votes.

Lamb opened with a wide lead in early returns Tuesday night — which came mainly from Allegheny County — but Saccone quickly chipped away at his lead. As the night wore on, Lamb supporters watched the returns, eyes wide with stomachs churning.

"I feel kinda sick," said Stacey Chick, a 43-year-old voter from Mount Lebanon, Pennsylvania, as she watched CNN on two blaring TV screens at the Lamb election-night party, held in a hotel ballroom here. "Yeah, I feel sick."

If Lamb holds on, it would deliver a gut-punch to Republicans hoping the political environment had improved. But if Saccone overtakes him, President Donald Trump and the GOP would have narrowly avoided an embarrassing defeat in a district Trump carried by 20 points in 2016.

Lamb, a former federal prosecutor and Marine veteran, faced Saccone, a state legislator and Air Force veteran, in the race to replace former Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.), who announced his resignation amid a sex scandal last year.

For Republicans, it’s been an all-out push to drag Saccone across the finish line. Trump rallied in the district twice, hoping to pump up GOP turnout, while Republican outside groups poured more than $10 million into the race. Other surrogates from the Trump orbit — like Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Kellyanne Conway — also visited the predominantly white district, which stretches from the Pittsburgh suburbs to the coal fields at the West Virginia border.

Democrats, meanwhile, are hoping for the victory that eluded them in nearly every other House special election in 2017, as they chip away at their 24-seat deficit in the House.

Lamb, a 33-year-old former Marine, cast himself as a centrist Democrat who rejected Nancy Pelosi’s leadership and demurred on restricting gun rights — a strategy that Democrats hope will attract moderate and independent voters in a district that traditionally backs Republicans.

He’s also acknowledged that his voters “overwhelmingly want me to work with the president, where it benefits us here in western Pennsylvania,” Lamb said Tuesday at a polling place in Carnegie, Pennsylvania, adding, “I’ll be more than happy to do that.”

Despite Lamb's rhetoric, GOP groups insisted that he would be a reliable Democratic vote in Washington. Congressional Leadership Fund played off of Lamb’s last name, promising voters that he’d join “Pelosi’s liberal flock.” The NRCC hammered Lamb on his tenure as a federal prosecutor, accusing him of getting plea bargains for drug dealers.

America First Action, the pro-Trump super PAC that dropped nearly $1 million on the race, said Lamb “wants you to believe that he won’t side with D.C. liberals — but unfortunately for Lamb, we know the truth,” in one TV ad.

Lamb said he believes that so much negativity may have backfired for Republicans, as “a lot of people are looking forward to when they don’t see the TV ads any more after Tuesday,” Lamb said in an interview with POLITICO over the final weekend of the campaign.

Back at the Lamb election-night party, Laurie Parker, a 52-year-old teacher from Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania, said she "might be able to sleep tonight," after a "very stressful, very tense night with a lot of ups and downs."

"I've never been into politics, but after Trump got elected, I knew I had to," said Parker, who volunteered for the first time on Lamb's campaign. "With all the negative TV ads, it just felt like good versus evil."

The winning candidate will finish the remainder of Murphy's unexpired term, until the new Congress convenes at the start of next year. But the court-ordered redrawing of the state's congressional map means that Lamb and Saccone find their homes in new, and different, districts for the midterm elections later this year.

The filing deadline for the November election is only a week away: March 20.