Joe Sestak May Challenge Pat Toomey for Senate Seat

A rematch between former U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak and U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey is in the works as Sestak announced Tuesday that he's exploring a run for the Senate in 2016.

Democrat Sestak, a former Navy vice admiral, lost narrowly to Republican Toomey in 2010.

Sestak, of Delaware County, has formed an exploratory committee—the equivalent of launching a campaign in terms of Federal Elections Commission paperwork, according to a Washington Post report.

Can Sestak beat Toomey? Who would you vote for if the Senate election was held today? Tell us in the comments section below.

Tuesday's announcement ends speculation that Sestak, 61, is raising money to challenge Gov. Tom Corbett. Sestak raised $460,000 in the first quarter of this year.

A Sestak-Toomey rematch "instantly makes Pennsylvania one of the nation’s marquee U.S. Senate battlegrounds in the nation in 2016," according to PoliticsPa.

Toomey, of Zionsville, Lehigh County, is currently the beneficiary of a new TV commercial by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, praising him for his "courage and common sense" for trying to expand background checks. Toomey's gun control amendment failed in the Senate but put him in the national spotlight.

Sestak ran successfully for Congress to represent Pennsylvania's seventh district, which is traditionally Republican, in 2006.

The district is made up of most of Delaware County along with portions of Chester County, Montgomery County, Berks County, and Lancaster County.

“Today, we’re launching a campaign for leadership, for a better America,” Sestak said in a video released Tuesday. “The Senate needs a leader accountable only to we the people, not any other interest.”