Todd Young Projected Winner In Senate Race Over Tom McDermott

(CBS) – Sen. Todd Young cruised to an easy victory over Thomas McDermott, in this deeply Republican state, according to CBS News projections.

McDermott, who is the mayor of Hammond, the largest city in deeply blue Lake County, didn't have the statewide firepower to mount a challenge. Young won his second term in the U.S. Senate.

McDermott simply didn't have the fund-raising apparatus to mount a serious challenge. Young raised $7.6 million through September of this year compared with $1.1 million for McDermott, according to Federal Election Commission reports. 

Young, a University of Chicago MBA graduate, first arrived on Capitol Hill as a congressman in 2010 before winning the Senate seat in 2016.

It was McDermott's second campaign for Congress. He lost in the 2020 Democratic primary to Rep. Frank Mrvan, who went on the succeed longtime Rep. Pete Visclosky in the 1st Congressional District. 

The first-term congressman faced a well-funded challenge from Jennifer Ruth Green.