HARRISBURG (TNS) — Pennsylvania’s State Democratic Party Committee made no endorsement in a hotly-contested U.S. Senate race Saturday, which actually gave several top-tier candidates room to claim victory.

In second round balloting, U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb polled 169 votes, swamping Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, 64, and State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, 42. But that left Lamb nine votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to capture the party’s endorsement, and that’s where the other candidates — whose best hope with this crowd was an open primary — claimed a win.

Lamb, a second-term Congressman from Mount Lebanon in Allegheny County, had no trouble defining his first-place showing as a win, and argued that even if it fell short of the endorsement standard, it only reaffirmed his electability argument.

“We’re very encouraged,” Lamb said. “Look, this was an opportunity for all four candidates to have the same chance to compete for this pool of voters, and by coming out with 60 percent I think we showed that we have the strongest argument not just to win the primary but to win in November, which is what everybody cares about.”

Fetterman’s camp put a positive spin on the results.

“Our path runs through the people. It doesn’t run through party insiders,” said Joe Calvello, a Fetterman spokesman.

The most disappointing showing of the day was from Montgomery County Commissioner Val Arkoosh, an anesthesiologist by profession who was eliminated from the balloting after drawing only 17 votes on the first ballot (those totals: Lamb 147; Fetterman, 64; Kenyatta, 55; Arkoosh, 17).

Still, Arkoosh said Saturday that she intends to press on, too.

“You know, we have several months until the primary, and this is one vote in January from, I think, just under 300 people. We’ve got a few more months to go, so I’m just eager to get out there and keep talking to voters, and making my case for how I’m the best candidate,” Arkoosh said.

Three other declared Democratic candidates were not present for Saturday’s endorsement meeting, though they did join a forum presented by the Pennsylvania Democratic Women’s Caucus Friday evening.

Earlier in the meeting, the Democratic Committee members did deliver a unanimous endorsement to Attorney General Josh Shapiro in the governor’s race, and they endorsed Shapiro’s choice, state Rep. Austin Davis, D-Allegheny County, for lieutenant governor out of a three-person field.

But with that primary already essentially settled, all political eyes Saturday were on the Senate field.

Inside and beyond Pennsylvania’s borders there’s a great deal of interest in the Pennsylvania seat as a potential pick-up for Democrats in a mid-term election in which both parties see majority control of the U.S. Senate as within their grasp. The seat is this year open because incumbent Republican Sen. Pat Toomey has opted not to seek re-election.

The open seat race has drawn crowded in both major parties, and the Republican State Committee will consider endorsements on Feb. 4.

Before the balloting Saturday, there was an unsuccessful effort by some committee members to affirmatively vote for an open primary.

“We have so many great candidates that I really think it should be the will of the people,” said Sara Laird, an elected committeewoman from Adams County who made that motion. “I don’t think we should put the weight of the party on it.”

But other countered that the party committee members had now had a chance to hear from the Senate candidates one-by-one. “They deserve to know how they are coming across,” said committee member Murray Levin of Montgomery County. “Let’s see how this plays out.”

The open primary motion was defeated on a voice vote.

Going into Saturday’s voting, Lamb was seen as the front-runner among these Democratic party regulars, many of whom see him as the strongest general election candidate.

“I’ve watched him win these races that everybody thought were unwinnable for a Democrat,” said Allegheny County executive Rich Fitzgerald, referring to Lamb’s win in a 2018 special election in a district that former President Donald Trump had won two years before, followed by his defeat of a Republican incumbent after a court-imposed redistricting.

“I think for us to have a chance to win this seat — which is so critical nationally — he’s the candidate who can do that,” Fitzgerald said.

Now, the Senate race moves back to fundraising, where the candidates will build war chests to fund the advertisements that will carry their messages direct to hundreds of thousands of voters at a time, and the nitty-gritty work of gathering voter signatures to formally gain a spot on the primary ballot.

The final candidate fields for both parties should be set by late March. Primary election day is May 17.