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 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. 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. “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. 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. 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. 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.
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.