LOS ANGELES — President Trump woke up here in the land of earthquakes on Wednesday morning, but he was 2,500 miles away from the tremor that was really shaking his party.

While the president hobnobbed on Tuesday night with wealthy donors in the exclusive enclave of Beverly Park, the voters in the suburbs south of Pittsburgh were in revolt, giving the Democratic candidate a narrow victory in a special election in Pennsylvania that was taking on outsize proportions.

Just as they did outside Birmingham and Montgomery, Ala., in December, and Richmond, Va., and Washington in November, energized and angry suburban voters were swamping the Trump stalwarts in the more rural parts of those regions, sending a clear message to Republicans around the country.

While Republican turnout in a district that Mr. Trump won in 2016 by 20 percentage points was healthy, Democrats showed again that they could tap unions and other traditionally friendly groups to get their voters out in droves. The N.A.A.C.P. helped win Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s former Alabama Senate seat for Doug Jones in December. Organized labor, once seen as fractured and feckless in the Trump era, gave the Democrat Conor Lamb his edge in Pennsylvania.</s>Democrat Conor Lamb declared victory early Wednesday in Pennsylvania’s special House election that was officially too close to call but seen by some political observers as a clear message to Republicans prior to November’s midterm elections.

The most recent results — with 99 percent of the precincts reporting — show Lamb up by fewer than 900 votes over Republican Rick Saccone. State officials said there were about 3,900 absentee ballots that still needed to be counted.

The final result may be determined by a recount.

Still, the unofficial results showed Lamb riding a wave of Democratic enthusiasm in a district that President Donald Trump won 16 months ago by 20 points. The result was expected to raise Democratic hopes of taking back the House in November.

“It took a little longer than we thought,” Lamb, a former Marine, told supporters. “We followed what I learned in the Marines – leave no one behind. We went everywhere; we talked to everyone; we invited everyone in.”

Saccone appeared more cautious after polls closed. He told an audience that he doesn’t give up. He thanked the crowd that he called “the salt of the earth” and vowed that he is going to keep fighting.

To be sure, Democrats wasted little time to celebrate the outcome.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Democratic National Committee both issued statements late Tuesday declaring victory.

This is a local race ... I don't think it has anything to do with the president. — Conor Lamb, Democratic House candidate

“These results should terrify Republicans. Despite their home field advantage and the millions of dollars outside groups poured into this race, Republicans found that their attacks against Conor, including their unpopular tax scam, were not believable,” Ben Ray, the DCCC chairman, said in a statement.

Tom Perez, the DNC chair, praised the “victory,” saying the upset was for “hardworking families of Western Pennsylvania and a victory for Democrats across the country.”

Lamb, a 33-year-old former federal prosecutor, ran up big margins against Saccone, 60, in wealthy Allegheny County and was holding his own in GOP-leaning Westmoreland, Washington and Greene counties.

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Wanda Murren told Fox News the race would not have a mandatory recount. Under state law, three voters in each precinct must petition for a recount and petitions must be filed five days after each county completes its tally.

Lamb insisted that Trump was not the main issue in the race. But the close margin was another setback for the president following Democratic Sen. Doug Jones' victory in Alabama's special election in December.

“We were executing a plan that we came up with a long time ago that had nothing to do with the president,” Lamb told reporters after voting Tuesday morning. “This is a local race. … I don’t think it has anything to do with the president.”

By contrast, Saccone had vowed that he would be Trump's "wingman," telling Fox Business Network's "Mornings with Maria" that the president "needs some help down there [in Washington]."

The president visited the district twice to campaign for Saccone, once in January and again on Saturday night in a rollicking rally that recalled Trump’s own 2016 campaign.

In a bid to lock up that key voting bloc, Democrats called in former Vice President Joe Biden to stump for Lamb.

“You said you want your piece of the sidewalk,” Biden, a potential 2020 presidential candidate, told a group of union workers last week. ”Hell, you own the sidewalk.” Biden has also said that Lamb reminds him of his late son, Beau, an Iraq War veteran and former Delaware attorney general who died of brain cancer in 2015 at age 46.

Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District, which stretches from the affluent Pittsburgh suburbs into deep Pennsylvania steel and coal country, had been held by Republican Tim Murphy since 2003. But Murphy was forced to resign in October amid revelations of an extramarital affair in which he urged his lover to get an abortion when they thought she was pregnant.

Lamb and Saccone could face off again in November – though they may not meet in the same district. In January, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the state’s congressional district boundaries were unfairly gerrymandered to aid Republicans.

The Democrat-controlled court has drawn a new map that puts Saccone and Lamb’s homes in separate districts. However, the matter is now in the hands of a three-judge federal panel, which is considering an appeal by Republican lawmakers.

Fox News' Bret Baier, Joseph Weber and the Associated Press contributed to this report.</s>
• Despite the Democrat candidate Conor Lamb declaring victory with fewer than 1,000 votes in the lead, Pennsylvania's election doesn't have to go to a recount.
• Voters in each precinct would have to file a petition to trigger a recount.
• Only absentee and provisional ballots remain to be counted as Lamb leads with 0.3%, or 677 votes.

Despite razor-thin margins in Pennsylvania's 18th district's special election, the state is not required to hold a recount as Democrat Conor Lamb leads with less than 1,000 votes and the election heads into its second day.

With 100% of precincts reporting, only absentee and provisional ballots remain uncounted. Lamb has already declared victory over his opponent, Rick Saccone, and as of Wednesday morning only leads by 677 votes.

But even with the 0.3% lead in votes, Pennsylvania law does not require a recount in this situation. Normally, Pennsylvania would require a recount for any candidate winning by less than half a percentage, but this is a special election for the seat of Tim Murphy, the Republican who stepped down after an abortion-related scandal.

Instead, if three voters from each precinct file a petition within five days of the final computations, they can trigger a recount, CNN's David Wright reported.

Though Republicans in Pennsylvania have yet to concede defeat, and remain hopeful that the final count will edify them, the close race bodes poorly for the party's chances in 2016.

That Lamb could perform so well in a district that overwhelmingly supported Trump and had sent a Republican to Congress without much contention for the better part of two decades signalled major challenges for the party as it seeks to maintain its congressional majorities in this year's midterm elections.</s>It could come down to a recount.

Democrat Conor Lamb has already declared victory over Republican Rick Saccone in Pennsylvania’s special House election, but Republicans say they aren’t giving up until every vote is counted.

The contest has still not been called, but Lamb leads Saccone by a few hundred votes. There’s no mandatory recount for a federal race in Pennsylvania, but Republicans have the option of petitioning for one.

"This race is too close to call and we’re ready to ensure that every legal vote is counted,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Matt Gorman said late Tuesday. “Once they are, we’re confident Rick Saccone will be the newest Republican member of Congress."

As of Wednesday morning, Lamb's lead stood at just 641 votes -- out of more than 224,000 votes cast, according to unofficial results. Election officials said there are about 200 absentee votes and an unknown number of provisional ballots still to be counted.

Even though the race has yet to be called, Lamb already declared victory in the race late Tuesday.

DEMOCRAT LAMB DECLARES VICTORY IN PA. SPECIAL ELECTION DETERMINED TOO CLOSE TO CALL

“It took a little longer than we thought,” Lamb, a former Marine, told supporters on Tuesday night. “We followed what I learned in the Marines – leave no one behind. We went everywhere; we talked to everyone; we invited everyone in.”

But Republicans were expressing optimism they could pick up some of the uncounted absentee votes.

“We are still fighting the fight,” Saccone told his supporters Tuesday night. “It’s not over yet.”

A source familiar with the next steps said Republican attorneys are planning to go to court Wednesday to demand the impounding of all ballots and machines that were used Tuesday night in all counties for all elections, as they plan for a possible recount.

Republicans plan to probe allegations that touch screen machines in Allegheny County were not properly calibrated and could have possibly registered votes for Lamb when the voter intended to vote for Saccone.

These attorneys also plan to allege that GOP attorneys were blocked from observing absentee ballots by Allegheny County election supervisors.

There are also some concerns that the newly court-drawn map for the next election caused confusion.

All three of these complains are seen as basis for a recount.

Under state law, a mandatory recount is triggered when a candidate for a state race wins by half of a percentage point. But Pennsylvania Secretary of State Wanda Murren told Fox News the race would not have a mandatory recount because this race is for a federal office.

Supporters of both candidates, though, can petition for one. Under state law, three voters in each precinct must petition for a recount and petitions must be filed five days after each county completes its tally.

The results showed Lamb riding a wave of Democratic enthusiasm in a district that President Trump won 16 months ago by 20 points. The result was expected to raise Democratic hopes of taking back the House in November.

The close margin was another setback for the president following Democratic Sen. Doug Jones' victory in Alabama's special election in December.

Lamb, a 33-year-old former federal prosecutor, ran up big margins against Saccone, 60, in wealthy Allegheny County and was holding his own in GOP-leaning Westmoreland, Washington and Greene counties.

The president visited the district twice to campaign for Saccone, once in January and again on Saturday night in a rollicking rally that recalled Trump’s own 2016 campaign.

In a bid to lock up that key voting bloc, Democrats called in former Vice President Joe Biden to stump for Lamb.

Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District, which stretches from the affluent Pittsburgh suburbs into deep Pennsylvania steel and coal country, had been held by Republican Tim Murphy since 2003. But Murphy was forced to resign in October amid revelations of an extramarital affair in which he urged his lover to get an abortion when they thought she was pregnant.

Fox News’ Peter Doocy, Samuel Chamberlain, Edmund DeMarche and The Associated Press contributed to this report.</s>The New York Times on Wednesday called the special election in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District for Democrat Conor Lamb, becoming the first large national publication to declare a winner in a congressional district that voted heavily for Donald Trump in 2016.

The Associated Press, seen as the standard-bearer for calling close elections, has not yet announced its call.

“The results may still be contested, but Mr. Lamb’s current lead appears insurmountable based on the number of provisional, military and other absentee ballots left to count,” the Times wrote.</s>The Pennsylvania congressional race between Democrat Conor Lamb and Republican Rick Saccone remains too close to call and will not be called until tomorrow, according to the Associated Press. Local elections officials still counting absentee ballots as of late Tuesday.

Some absentee ballots were not expected to be counted until Wednesday morning, and the final result could be decided by a recount.

Nearly three hours after polls closed and with 99 percent of precincts reporting, unofficial results had Lamb leading Saccone by 847 votes, as he rode a wave of Democratic enthusiasm in a district that President Trump won by 20 points a mere 16 months ago.

Regardless of who is declared the winner, the result is expected to raise Democratic hopes of taking back the House in November's midterm elections and shake Republican self-assurance that their new tax law is an omnipotent offense and defense against the so-called "blue wave."

“These results should terrify Republicans. Despite their home field advantage and the millions of dollars outside groups poured into this race, Republicans found that their attacks against Conor, including their unpopular tax scam, were not believable,” Ben Ray, the DCCC chairman, said in a statement.

Lamb, a 33-year-old Marine veteran and former federal prosecutor, ran up big margins against Saccone, 60, in wealthy Allegheny County and was holding his own in GOP-leaning Westmoreland, Washington and Greene counties.

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Wanda Murren told Fox News the race would not have a mandatory recount. Under state law, three voters in each precinct must petition for a recount and petitions must be filed five days after each county completes its tally.

Lamb insisted that Trump was not the main issue in the race. But the close margin is another setback for the president following Democratic Sen. Doug Jones' victory in December's Alabama special election.

“We were executing a plan that we came up with a long time ago that had nothing to do with the president,” Lamb told reporters after voting Tuesday morning. “This is a local race … I don’t think it has anything to do with the president.”

By contrast, Saccone had vowed that he would be Trump's "wingman," telling Fox Business Network's "Mornings with Maria" that the president "needs some help down there [in Washington]."

The president visited the district twice to campaign for Saccone, once in January and again on Saturday night in a rollicking rally that recalled Trump’s own 2016 campaign.

“Do me a favor, get out on Tuesday,” Trump said immediately after greeting the crowd. “Vote for Rick Saccone, and we can leave right now.” Vice President Mike Pence, Ivanka Trump and counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway also visited the district.

But Saccone struggled to raise money and stir the same passions that helped Trump sweep the industrial Midwest on his way to the White House. According to Federal Election Commission records, Lamb raised more than $3.3 million since the start of 2018, compared to $703,000 for Saccone.

Meanwhile, national groups aligned with Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and other Washington Republicans poured roughly $9 million on the race, filling airwaves and social media with depictions of Lamb as little more than a lemming for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Lamb countered with an ad calling it all "a big lie" since he'd already declared he wouldn't support Pelosi as floor leader, much less a return to the speaker's rostrum. He added his opposition to major new gun restrictions — though he backs expanded background checks — and declared himself personally opposed to abortion, despite his support for its legality.

By contrast, Lamb hammered the new GOP tax law as a giveaway to corporations at the certain future expense of Social Security, Medicare and the nation's fiscal security. Lamb also embraced unions, highlighting Saccone's anti-labor record at the statehouse. The AFL-CIO counts 87,000 votes from union households — around a fifth of the electorate.

In a bid to lock up that key voting bloc, Democrats called in former Vice President Joe Biden to stump for Lamb.

“You said you want your piece of the sidewalk,” Biden, a potential 2020 presidential candidate, told a group of union workers last week. ”Hell, you own the sidewalk.” Biden has also said that Lamb reminds him of his late son, Beau, an Iraq War veteran and former Delaware attorney general who died of brain cancer in 2015 at the age of 46.

Pennsylvania's 18th congressional district, which stretches from the affluent Pittsburgh suburbs into deep Pennsylvania steel and coal country, had been held by Republican Tim Murphy since 2003. But Murphy was forced to resign in October amid revelations of an extramarital affair in which he urged his lover to get an abortion when they thought she was pregnant.

Lamb and Saccone could face off again in November – though they may not meet in the same district. In January, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the state’s congressional district boundaries were unfairly gerrymandered to aid Republicans.

The Democrat-controlled court has drawn a new map that puts Saccone and Lamb’s homes in separate districts. However, the matter is now in the hands of a three-judge federal panel, which is considering an appeal by Republican lawmakers.

Fox News' Bret Baier, Joseph Weber, Edmund DeMarche, Bradford Betz and The Associated Press contributed to this report.</s>Voters in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District will pick a replacement on Tuesday for former Representative Tim Murphy, a Republican who resigned last year after reports he encouraged a woman, with whom he had an affair, to have an abortion. The special election pits Rick Saccone, a Republican lawmaker allied with President Trump, against Conor Lamb, a former prosecutor running as a moderate Democrat.

The solidly Republican district, where Mr. Trump won by double digits in 2016, takes in the Pittsburgh suburbs and stretches through more rural areas to the West Virginia border. But the race has become unexpectedly competitive, and Mr. Lamb could score an upset if he can pair strong Democratic turnout in Allegheny County with crossover support from conservative-leaning towns in Washington and Greene counties.

Whoever wins will have to decide soon which district to run in this year: The state Supreme Court threw out its current congressional map, and recently adopted a new map with redrawn boundaries. Polls close at 8 p.m. Eastern. Here’s what to watch for in the race.</s>Republican Rick Saccone's campaign has instructed the four counties in Pennsylvania's 18th District to preserve ballots and voting machines, a first step in preparation for a potential recount following the close special election.

With election day over and absentee ballots counted, Saccone trailed Democrat Conor Lamb by 627 votes in a district where President Donald Trump won by 20 points. But Saccone had not yet conceded the race Wednesday and now appears poised to challenge the result.

Automatic recounts are not mandated in Pennsylvania congressional races, according to the state law. There is a process in place, however, for Saccone's supporters to request a recount when the counties have all the provisional and overseas military ballots and they have been counted.

An attorney representing Saccone's campaign notified elections offices in Westmoreland, Washington, Green and Allegheny counties Wednesday of the preservation request, setting a 2 p.m. deadline for responses, according to letters obtained by CNN. All four counties complied, said Matt Gorman, a spokesperson National Republican Congressional Committee.

The campaign is also challenging Allegheny County officials over the initial exclusion of one of its attorneys from the vote count, according to a letter to the county from Kathleen Gallagher, the attorney representing the campaign. "While we were finally able to obtain compliance with your inappropriate preconditions, the delay deprived the campaign of the right to have counsel present during the computation reporting process," Gallagher wrote.

The campaign sought assurances from country officials that its lawyers would not be blocked from observing canvassing.

Allegheny County spokeswoman Amie Downs told CNN that a person lacking authorization to be in the room where absentee ballots were being counted was blocked from entering, but was later allowed back in when the person was approved to be there.

Meanwhile, the NRCC plans to launch a digital push to solicit reports from voters of irregularities they witnessed or difficulties they had in casting ballots, Gorman said. Bob Branstetter, a top Saccone aide, said Wednesday morning that the campaign fielded calls on election day from voters who were confused about the new Pennsylvania congressional map, which will be in effect during the November election.</s>A closely watched and extremely expensive special congressional election in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District remained too close to call late Tuesday.

Such a tight margin will likely be seen as a major victory for the Democrat Conor Lamb, as President Donald Trump won the area in southwest Pennsylvania by nearly 20 points during the 2016 election cycle and in the last two cycles the Republican incumbent ran unopposed.

At 11:30 P.M. eastern time, with nearly all precincts reporting and most of the votes in, Lamb and Republican Rick Saccone were separated by less than 1,000 votes, with the Democrat holding on to a narrow lead.

Despite the fact that the Associated Press did not call the race on Tuesday night, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee declared victory.

"These results should terrify Republicans," DCCC Chairman Rep. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico said in a statement.

"We're going to fight all the way to the end. You know I never give up," Saccone said at his election headquarters on Tuesday night.

"It took a little longer than we thought, but we did it," Lamb said at the top of his remarks early Wednesday morning.

Just a minute earlier, he was announced to the stage as "Congressman-elect Conor Lamb."

The final result may come down absentee ballots that have been returned but not tabulated yet.

There are two remaining counties in the district with absentee votes left to be tallied.

Washington County also expects to count their ballots late Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.

Greene County will not count their absentee ballots until tomorrow.

With the final result still unclear, the possibility of a recount looms.

While state law stipulates that an automatic recount is triggered when the margin in a statewide race is less than half a percentage point, the rules for a special election in a congressional district remain unclear.

The results give the Democratic Party a boost in confidence and shores up their belief that their candidates can run and compete in any House district in the country — even the reddest ones. President Donald Trump took the district by 20 points in 2016.

"Democrats have now expanded the playing field, and they're going to compete in districts Republicans won by 12, 14, 16 points," ABC News contributor and political analyst Matt Dowd said Tuesday night.

They’ll also argue their base is much more motivated than the GOP voters who gave Trump the White House.

The numbers appear to back that up.

Turnout in the most Democratic county, Allegheny, was 6 percentage points higher than the other three more Republican counties that make up the 18th Congressional District.

But, a bigger part of the math that made this race so tight was that Lamb also seems to have swung votes and outperformed Hillary Clinton across the board, doing 10 percentage points better than the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee.

Lamb, a 33-year old Marine Corps veteran and former assistant U.S. attorney has been locked in a tight battle with Saccone, a 60-year old, four-term state representative to represent the southwestern Pennsylvania district.

Tuesday’s special election was triggered by the resignation of Republican Rep. Tim Murphy last year following a report that he allegedly asked an extramarital lover to end her pregnancy.

The closely-watched contest has seen close to $10 million spent by conservative groups to boost Saccone and stave off concerns that the GOP is falling out of favor with the same blue-collar voters that propelled Donald Trump to the White House.</s>Pennsylvania's squeaker of special election could be headed to a recount.

Democrat Conor Lamb, who maintains a more than 600 vote lead with 99 percent of votes counted, was declared the apparent winner in Tuesday's race to represent the state's 18th Congressional District. But his opponent, Republican state Rep. Rick Saccone, has not conceded — and a source familiar with his campaign's efforts told NBC News it's "probable" that they'll mount a challenge.

State law doesn't automatically mandate a recount because it is a single district and not a statewide race, according to Wanda Murren, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of State. But before anyone can officially protest the results, a few things have to happen.

First, on Friday, election officials for Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District must convene for a canvass — something that is done after every election to review the unofficial votes. Election officials will re-tabulate all the votes cast on Election Day as well as review absentee ballots and provisional ballots.

A recount can only be triggered if three voters from a precinct file a petition within five days of the canvass beginning. In this case, the clock would start Friday. But Saccone's campaign can't ask for it — the recount petitions must be filed by voters, not candidates. However, in the past, candidates have identified voters to file complaints.

That canvass process usually concludes by Wednesday morning, according to Kevin Greenberg, a Democratic election lawyer based in Philadelphia who is the former general counsel for the city's board of elections.

If the voters successfully file their petitions, then the board of elections in each county would oversee the recount process. The recount would resemble Friday's canvass, Greenberg said.

"In my practice, I have never seen a recount procedure move dozens or hundreds of votes," Greenberg told NBC News. "The kinds of mistakes that get caught when we review the votes in the canvass in this process may be one or three or five, but it’s not 600."

Murren said if it were a statewide race, a recount would be triggered if a candidate loses by one-half of a percent or less of the votes cast for the office.

Saccone's campaign has made claims of voting irregularities and said it plans to file a number of related lawsuits — but had yet to do so by late Wednesday afternoon. It also has not provided evidence to back up its suggestion of irregularities.

The campaign said that individuals in Allegheny County reported that while voting on the county's election machines, the wrong candidate appeared, not the candidate the voter selected. The Saccone campaign claims election officials were unable to remedy the issue and the voters ended up casting their ballots for the wrong candidate.

However, the county vehemently disputed this.

“We received no reports whatsoever from any of the precincts," said Amie Downs, a county spokeswoman. After people vote, she explained, they get a second screen that says who they voted for, and they can get help from an official on site if they have any questions.

The campaign also alleged that its attorney was improperly removed from part of the review process of absentee ballots in Allegheny County. This county disputed this, as well.

Observers must have "written authorization from the chair of that party’s committee," Downs said, adding that the Saccone campaign's attorney did not initially have that authorization, but was later allowed in after providing the authorization.

Greenberg noted that candidates can contest the outcome of an election by alleging fraud, negligence or other serious problems at the hands of election officials that may have impacted the outcome. That process can begin within 20 days after the election is certified by the secretary of state, which is roughly within three weeks after the canvass is completed.

According to Greenberg, Pennsylvania's most recent election contest came courtesy of Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who tried to fight the 2016 presidential election results in the state by claiming voting machines and systems had been hacked and the election result manipulated. But her claim was dismissed by a judge.

"It is very unusual for there to be that kind of negligence or malfeasance,” he said. "I have not been aware of anyone alleging those kinds of problems on Tuesday."
Democrat Conor Lamb declares victory in the special election of Pennsylvania's 18th congressional district. The final vote could still be determined by a recount if at least three voters in each precinct petition for one.