Updated 1 hour ago
Western Pennsylvania's pivotal special election race for Congress between Conor Lamb and Rick Saccone remained too close to call early Wednesday, but Lamb declared victory in a speech about 12:40 a.m.
With all of the congressional district's 593 precincts reporting, Lamb had collected 49.8 percent of the votes counted compared with Saccone's 49.6 percent, unofficial tallies showed. Only 579 votes separated the candidates.
Hundreds of absentee ballots remained uncounted.
Washington County Elections Director Larry Spahr said his staffers were tallying the county's 1,195 absentee ballots early Wednesday. He expected that work to continue until at least 3 a.m. CNN reported that another 203 absentee ballots remained uncounted in Greene County.
The emotions of supporters gathered at the candidates' election-night parties hinged on results that trickled in incrementally and tightened throughout the night.
At the Youghiogheny Country Club in Elizabeth Township, Saccone emerged about 11:30 p.m. to deliver remarks for about two minutes. He thanked supporters and told them to head home since the final results wouldn't be clear until Wednesday.
“We're gonna keep fighting. Don't give up! We'll keep it up!” Saccone, 60, of Elizabeth Township said as he raised his arms and pumped his fists.
About the same time at the Hilton Garden Inn in Washington County's Southpointe development, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said Lamb's performance in the race demonstrated the power of grassroots campaigning. He urged Lamb's supporters to “hang in there” about another hour.
About an hour later, Lamb took the stage and told supporters, “It took a little longer than we thought, but we did it. You did it.”
Lamb praised the role of unions.
“Side by side with us each step of the way were the men and women of organized labor. Organized labor built Western Pennsylvania. Tonight they have reasserted their right to have a major part in our future,” said Lamb, 33, of Mt. Lebanon.
Lamb, a former federal prosecutor and Marine Corps officer with two Ivy League degrees, was considered a longshot when he emerged as the Democratic nominee to run in the race to replace former Congressman Tim Murphy, a Republican who resigned in October amid an extramarital scandal.
Murphy easily won eight elections and Donald Trump carried the district by 19 percentage points in the 2016 presidential election, despite a Democratic voter registration edge of about 24,000.
While early polling heavily favored Saccone, the race tightened and money started pouring in, with outside groups spending more than $10 million to support Saccone and Lamb's campaign collecting more than $3.8 million from donors. Many donors and political observers viewed the race as a
