Republican David McCormick wins Pennsylvania Senate seat, beating incumbent Bob Casey

McCormick's wife, Dina Powell, is an Egyptian-born former adviser to Donald Trump

Pennsylvania senator-elect David McCormick and wife Dina Powell celebrate during an election night watch party in Pittsburgh. AP

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Republican David McCormick, a businessman-turned-politician, has won a tight race for the Senate in Pennsylvania, unseating the Democratic incumbent and further cementing his party's hold on power in the chamber.

Mr McCormick defeated Bob Casey, who has served in the Senate since 2007, by a little more than 30,000 votes.

The win helps the Republicans to secure a comfortable majority in the Senate, which will make it easier for president-elect Donald Trump to govern and pass legislation.

Mr McCormick spent much of his career in finance, as chief executive of Bridgewater Associates, one of the largest hedge funds in the world. He held several roles in George W Bush’s administration, including as deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs.

In 2019, he married Dina Powell, an Egyptian-born former adviser to Mr Trump during his first term. Ms Powell was deputy national security adviser for strategy from 2017 to 2018, when she helped to shape Mr Trump’s approach to Middle East policy.

This is not Mr McCormick's first foray into politics. In 2022, he lost to Mehmet Oz in the Republican senatorial primary. Mr Oz then lost to Democrat John Fetterman.

Mr McCormick was considered an underdog in the race against Mr Casey. While he is a native of Pennsylvania, he had previously lived in a sprawling home in Connecticut, and his opponent tried to portray him as a “Wall Street Republican”.

Throughout the campaign, Mr McCormick tied Mr Casey to the Biden administration's handling of the economy, inflation and a host of domestic issues.

Both candidates poured huge sums of money into the high-stakes contest, in which Republicans wrested the coveted Senate seat back from the Democrats, who had held both Pennsylvania seats since 2022.

Mr McCormick's win comes amid a string of Republican successes. Mr Trump, who lost Pennsylvania in 2020, took the state, which was expected to be one of the tightest contests, by more than 135,000 votes.