Marc E. Elias, an attorney at Elias Law Group, did not waste much time after Republican Dave McCormick was declared the upset winner over longtime U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa).
“The Pennsylvania Senate race is not over,” he posted on X. “More soon.”
It was a lifeline for Democrats, who remained stunned not only at losing the White House but also at losing a U.S. Senate seat they’d controlled for nearly two decades. Despite also losing control of the U.S. Senate, Democrats now face the prospect of being out of power in the U.S. House as well.
It was also classic Elias, known for his extreme partisanship and hardball tactics. Elias is probably best known for his role in funding the infamous “Steele Dossier,” the largely debunked document used by enemies of President Trump to bolster the “Russian Collusion” hoax. Elias, who was Hillary Clinton’s campaign attorney at the time, worked with the Democratic National Committee to bankroll the research that made its way into the dossier.
Elias has since been sanctioned by a federal judge in 2021 over his lack of candor while challenging a Texas elections law that ended straight-ticket voting.
In 2022, he represented a Massachusetts Democratic marketing firm caught sending illegal mailers to influence a New Hampshire Republican congressional primary. Those mailers did not reveal who bankrolled them, a violation of New Hampshire and federal law. A settlement was eventually reached this August.
Even the DNC parted ways with Elias earlier this year, according to Punchbowl News.
Now Elias is in Pennsylvania, fighting an uphill battle on behalf of Casey who, as of late Monday, was still losing to McCormick by about 40,000 votes in a race already called by the Associated Press. Elias’ strategy appears to be “hold and hunt”: Hold off as many people as possible from conceding the election, while he and the Democratic Party hire canvassers to hunt down ballots.
After McCormick was declared the winner, Elias linked to Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt’s call for patience as all votes were counted. The next day, he revealed the McCormick campaign filed suits in Philadelphia that sought to make sure GOP representatives were present when provisional ballots were reviewed.
“Pro Tip: Candidates who believe they have won don’t file lawsuits like this. Very strong Trump 2020 vibes,” snarked Elias.
Raising unfounded questions about the election process has become a theme for the 55-year-old attorney — a lawyer Democrats love and Republicans loathe.
“Marc is … the go-to for any legal matters regarding election law. He, quite literally, helped craft the very laws he defends,” political strategist TJ Rooney, former Pennsylvania Democratic Party chair, told DVJournal.
Guy Ciarrocchi, who served as chief of staff to Republican Jim Cawley during his tenure as Pennsylvania lieutenant governor, called Elias, “Darth Vader with a law degree – but there’s no chance to win him back.”
With a career spanning back to Washington’s 2000 Senate recount, Elias has been a key player in high-stakes election disputes, from defending John Kerry’s campaign to representing Hillary Clinton in 2016.
“I have been involved in eight state-wide recounts and have been successful in all of them,” he once boasted before the 2016 election.
His most infamous involvement in politics could be the Steele Dossier.
It cost the DNC and the Clinton campaign more than $12 million to fund the creation of the dossier, a list of unfounded allegations against Trump ranging from salacious sexual behavior to illicit connections to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The document has largely been debunked, and an in-depth investigation by The Wall Street Journal found the document “frivolous” and “unvetted.”
He suffered a major defeat in 2018 a federal judge tossed a lawsuit over the U.S. Senate election Florida. That resulted in Republican then-Gov. Rick Scott defeating incumbent Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson.
Scott has never forgotten the contentious legal battle against Elias.
“Remember when you tried that crap against me and lost? Dave McCormick beat Bob Casey and he’ll beat you too.” Scott posted on X last week.
Even some of Elias’ erstwhile allies have expressed concerns about his hyper-partisan overreach and the backlash it has inspired. Rick Hasen of the Safeguarding Democracy project at UCLA Law School wrote, “I get lots of messages from election lawyers and professors complaining about Marc but reluctant to voice their criticisms publicly.”
Republicans want Casey to call off the partisan dogs and concede defeat.
“He needs to tell those people to go pound sand, do the honorable thing, and end his career with some dignity,” said Vince Galko, a Republican strategist at Mercury in Harrisburg.
That’s not likely to happen.
Elias remains popular with Democrats, despite the court losses. He represents all major Democrat campaign committees in Congress along with a plethora of senators and representatives.
When asked if he would hire Elias to represent him in an election challenge, Rooney said “Every day of the week.”
