It’s the most closely watched, most expensive, perhaps most consequential Senate race in the country. and as the vote comes in for the Pennsylvania Senate race tonight, one John Fetterman campaign source describes the race as a “jump ball,” telling CNN the team for the Democratic candidate is confident they closed out the race as strongly as they possibly could.
“Pennsylvania is Pennsylvania, but we feel like we’ve done everything we can,” a second campaign source told CNN.
The first source pointed to strong crowd attendance at a rally in a Philadelphia suburb last week despite the fact the Phillies and Eagles were both playing as the beginning of “Fetterman strikes back.”
That was followed by an endorsement from Oprah Winfrey on Friday in which she chose Fetterman over his Republican challenger Dr. Mehmet Oz, a man she made a household name. On Saturday, Fetterman appeared with former President Barack Obama for rallies in Democratic strongholds, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, with President Joe Biden joining the Philadelphia event.
“The news cycles we’ve been through in the past couple days were really solid for us,” the source added.
And critically, the campaign believes Oz undercut his closing message of rejecting extremism by appearing on stage with former President Donald Trump and at the same rally as Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano.
However, the Oz campaign believes its closing message on the contrast of balance and extremism puts them in a good position in the race. A source tells CNN they believe that message resonated with voters and helped define Fetterman in a way that stuck with voters.
The Republican candidate’s campaign is feeling confident as it waits for the votes to be counted in Pennsylvania, believing it closed out the election on a high note with a large crowd in the Philadelphia suburbs Monday night.
Both campaigns are, however, very aware and prepared for the vote count to come in slowly and knows it could take days to determine a winner.