Republican Pat Toomey has defeated Rep. Joe Sestak (D) in Pennsylvania’s high-profile Senate contest.
The Associated Press called the race with 98 percent of precincts reporting and Toomey leading by 1.4 points.
Toomey, who served as the president of the conservative Club for Growth until last year, led in the majority of public polls for much of the cycle. He was the beneficiary of a flood of outside spending by conservative groups, including more than $810,000 by Crossroads GPS, $1.3 million by the Club for Growth, $1.4 million from the National Rifle Association and $1.5 million from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Sestak benefited from independent spending from Planned Parenthood ($1.1 million), various organized labor organizations (roughly $1 million) and VoteVets.org ($790,000).
But the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee went all in to preserve the Pennsylvania Senate seat, pouring nearly $10 million into the race (twice the amount of its Republican counterpart), including the primary and general election cycles.
Sestak defeated Sen. Arlen Specter in a Democratic primary contest in May. Specter was only a Democrat for a brief period of time, switching parties in early 2009 at the urging of President Barack Obama.