Voters in Pennsylvania elected one member to the U.S. Senate in the election on November 6, 2018.

The election filled the Class 1 Senate seat held by Bob Casey, Jr. (D). He was first elected in 2006.

Endorsements

• Bob Casey
  • Sen. Kamala Harris
• Lou Barletta
  • Vice President Mike Pence

Campaign finance

The chart below contains data from financial reports submitted to the Federal Election Commission.

Election history

2016

The race for Pennsylvania's U.S. Senate seat was one of nine competitive battleground races in 2016 that helped Republicans keep control of the upper chamber after the November 8 general election. Incumbent Pat Toomey (R), who began serving in the Senate in 2011, defeated Katie McGinty (D), Edward Clifford III (L), and write-in candidate Everett Stern (I) in the general election.

Toomey managed to keep his race with McGinty close by running his campaign separately from President-elect Donald Trump and by withholding whom he would vote for on Election Day. Toomey told reporters, “You know, I’m not campaigning with Donald Trump. He’s running his campaign. I’m running mine.”

Hillary Clinton, who campaigned with McGinty in October, criticized Toomey for not rejecting Trump as his party’s nominee. She said to a crowd of supporters, “How much does he have to hear or to see? If he doesn’t have the courage to stand up against Donald Trump after all of this, then how will he stand up to special interests and powerful forces that are going to be trying to have their way in Washington?”

McGinty repeated the criticism, saying to supporters, "What more does Pat Toomey need to hear? You're fired, that's a good one!"

Toomey was confident that his strategy to keep his re-election bid separate from the presidential race would be successful. He said, “I am convinced that Pennsylvania voters are going to make a complete separation in their minds. … There’s a presidential race going on, quite obviously, lots of attention, lots of focus, everybody’s got their opinion about it, and then there’s a totally separate thing happening in the Senate race — an incumbent senator most people know and an opponent. Totally separate campaign and totally separate judgment.” Toomey stated on Election Day that he voted for Trump.

U.S. Senate, Pennsylvania General Election, 2016

Party	Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Pat Toomey Incumbent	48.8%	2,951,702
	Democratic	Katie McGinty	47.3%	2,865,012
	Libertarian	Edward Clifford	3.9%	235,142
Total Votes			6,051,856
Source: Pennsylvania Department of State

U.S. Senate, Pennsylvania Democratic Primary, 2016

Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Katie McGinty	42.5%	669,774
Joe Sestak	32.6%	513,221
John Fetterman	19.5%	307,090
Joseph Vodvarka	5.4%	85,837
Total Votes		1,575,922
Source: Pennsylvania Department of State

2012

Bob Casey Jr. won re-election to the United States Senate in 2012.

U.S. Senate, Pennsylvania General Election, 2012

Party	Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Bob Casey Jr. Incumbent	53.7%	3,021,364
	Republican	Tom Smith	44.6%	2,509,132
	Libertarian	Rayburn Douglas Smith	1.7%	96,926
Total Votes			5,627,422
Source: Pennsylvania Department of State

Demographics

Demographic data for Pennsylvania

As of July 2017, Pennsylvania had a population of approximately 12,800,000 people, with its three largest cities being Philadelphia (pop. est. 1.6 million), Pittsburgh (pop. est. 300,000), and Allentown (pop. est. 120,000).