Republican Pat Toomey won the general election by a 2 percentage point margin over Joe Sestak, who beat Sen. Arlen Specter in the Democratic primary. Mr. Toomey served in Congress from 1999 to 2005, representing Pennsylvania鈥檚 15th District, but lost the Republican nomination for Senate in 2004. In a press release on Nov. 10, Toomey declared his cosponsorship of a conference rule advocating the ban of earmarks in the 2012 fiscal year.
This seat was one of the six Republican pickups in the Senate.
