One candidate declares victory after absentee ballot count in Pennsylvania special election

After an election night with no clear winner, the Democrat Conor Lamb declared victory after absentee ballots were counted, despite Republican Rick Saccone refusing to concede.

Here are the results of the absentee ballot count

The totals of the election day and absentee ballots stand at 113,813 for Conor Lamb and 113,186 votes for Rick Saccone, 49.8 percent to 49.6 percent respectively. That means the Democrat won by only a margin of 627 votes.

Provisional ballots and military or overseas ballots are yet to be counted, but many believe there are not enough to overcome the 627 gulf for Saccone.

Lamb declared victory Wednesday afternoon, saying from his social media account, "We did it. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. I'm so grateful to everyone who made this possible."

"I'm proud of what we accomplished last night," he added. "I'm proud to be a Western Pennsylvania Democrat. And I'm ready to get to work for the people of #PA18."

Rick Saccone has not yet conceded the election, and his campaign appears to be gearing up for a recount.

The White House responds

"The Democrat in the race really embraced the President’s policies and position," said White House spokesman Raj Shah to reporters, "where he didn’t embrace Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leader."

"The President does want candidates that embrace his policies, his vision, to win up and down the ballot," he added. "Each campaign in unique. Each candidate is unique. We saw that last night. We’ll see it in 2018."

While the election was very tight, most pundits believe it's a bad sign for Republicans to run even in a state where President Trump won in the 2016 election.

Here's a news report from Fox News: